Alpha-Bites
by cleotheo
Summary: Twenty six snapshots of Draco and Hermione's relationship. Each little snapshot corresponds to a letter of the alphabet.
1. Anniversary

**A/N – Alpha-Bites is a series of little snippets, each one corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. The shortest of the snippets are about 500 words, while the longest is just over 1,000. All the snippets take place in the same universe, but aren't in chronological order. Some take place before Draco and Hermione are a couple, some are before they get married, some are after they're married, some are before they have children and some are after they have children. I've already completed all the snippets, so updates will be fairly fast.**

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><p><span>Anniversary.<span>

In the vast ballroom at Malfoy Manor, Hermione looked around at all her friends and family. Everyone had come to celebrate her and Draco's twenty fifth wedding anniversary. Hermione still found it hard to believe they'd been married for twenty five years, more often than not when she was with her husband she felt like the same teenage girl who had first fallen in love with him. Sometimes it was hard to accept that they were both heading up towards fifty and had grown kids of their own.

"You look serious." Draco said, turning to his wife and wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"I'm just thinking how quickly time passes." Hermione said, leaning into her husband. "It feels like only yesterday we were getting married."

"I know what you mean, every time I look at Scorpius and Lyra I wonder where my children went." Draco chuckled. "They've grown up so fast."

Hermione nodded as her eyes searched out her children. Her eyes first landed on her beautiful eighteen year old daughter, who was laughing with her best friend, Izzy Zabini. Lyra had just finished school a few weeks previously, and had applied to go into Healer training. Draco and Hermione's daughter favoured Hermione in looks, with her long brunette curls and warm smile. However her curls were much more manageable than Hermione's had ever been. Her pale skin and her silver-grey eyes had been inherited off Draco, meaning she was recognisable as a Malfoy even without the platinum blond hair.

Scorpius on the other hand was an almost perfect replica of his father, his brown eyes the only hint Hermione had played a part in creating him. Scorpius was now twenty three and a little over a year ago, he'd married his long term girlfriend, Lily Potter. Lily was a year younger than Scorpius and the pair had been together since school.

Draco liked to moan about his family now being related to the Potters, but Hermione knew he didn't mean it. Draco adored Lily and thought she was perfect for Scorpius, who like Draco needed a strong woman in his life. Plus these days he was really good friends with Lily's parents, Harry and Ginny. The past had long since been forgotten and on a whole Hermione's Gryffindor friends and Draco's Slytherin friends got along great.

"Come on, let's dance." Draco said, jolting Hermione from her thoughts. "This is supposed to be a celebration, not a time to be maudlin."

"You're right." Hermione said as she took hold of Draco's hand and let him pull her from her chair. "We should be celebrating that I've managed to go twenty five years without killing you."

"If you count the years before we were married, we're heading up to thirty years together." Draco pointed out. "That's even more impressive."

"So you're admitting, it's impressive I haven't killed you." Hermione laughed as she husband wrapped her in his arms and they began to move to the music together.

"It's impressive we haven't killed each other." Draco replied. "I don't think many people thought we would last half an hour, let alone nearly thirty years."

"I always did like to prove people wrong." Hermione smiled.

"How about we carry on proving people wrong." Draco suggested. "Do you think we can make it to our fiftieth wedding anniversary?"

Hermione stopped dancing and looked up at her husband. "Together, we can do anything."

Draco smiled back at Hermione as he leant down and connected their lips. Locked together in a passionate embrace, the pair drew whistles and cheers from their friends and family. They may have been together for a long time and were both middle aged, but their love for one another was still as strong as ever.

"Okay, you two break it up." Scorpius called over to his parents. "Honestly, you're like a couple of teenagers."

"I think it's cute." Lily giggled from beside her husband. "I hope we're still like that in twenty five years."

Despite the public display of affection his parents were indulging in Scorpius smiled and nodded his head in agreement with Lily. His parents were an inspiration, and if he and Lily were half as happy as them by their twenty fifth anniversary then they were going to be a lucky couple. His parents had been lucky enough to have a great life together, and he hoped that in another twenty five years they'd be celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. Although knowing them two they would still be indulging in their public displays of affection, his grandparents certainly still did, and he hoped in years to come he and Lily would be the same.

Across the room Draco and Hermione had finally separated and returned to their seats to enjoy the rest of the evening. Suddenly Hermione wasn't feeling as old, she and Draco still had plenty of good years in them and she was planning on enjoying every single one of them. Maybe a second honeymoon could be on the cards. Hermione grinned at the thought of a second honeymoon, she wouldn't mind spending a few weeks alone with her husband, especially if there was no clothes involved.

Leaning over to Draco, Hermione whispered her suggestion in his ear. Draco grinned at the prospect of a second honeymoon, and as the night wore on the couple made plans. By the end of the evening they'd already decided that a second honeymoon was a definite, they were going to celebrate their twenty fifth wedding anniversary in style. And what better way to celebrate their anniversary then reliving their honeymoon.


	2. Birthday

**A/N – This is one of the shorter snippets in the series.**

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><p><span>Birthday.<span>

On the day of her thirtieth birthday, Hermione awoke to warm sun streaming through the window and hitting the bed. Stretching languidly, Hermione's naked skin rubbed against the silk sheets. Hermione instantly knew her husband wasn't in bed, but rather than get up she remained lounging in bed. Draco had brought her away for the weekend as his parents looked after Scorpius, and Hermione intended to make the most of their time alone together.

Shortly after Hermione woke up, Draco entered the bedroom carrying a breakfast tray. Hermione grinned as she spotted her husband hadn't bothered getting dressed and was completely naked. Sitting up in bed, she let the covers fall around her waist, exposing her bare breasts to her husband's eyes.

"Mmm, not bad for an old woman." Draco joked, perching on the side of the bed and blatantly eyeing up his wife's breasts.

"Not this again." Hermione rolled her eyes at Draco as she looked over what he'd brought her for breakfast. For the last few weeks Draco had been teasing her about hitting thirty when he was still in his twenties. "I'm only a few months older than you, you'll be thirty soon."

"Not until next year." Draco replied, as they began to eat breakfast. "Until then I get to tease my wife about that fact she's no longer in her twenties. Just think, ten more years and you'll be hitting forty."

"If you keep this up, you won't live to see thirty." Hermione told her husband, shooting him a deadly glare.

"No need to be so touchy." Draco laughed.

"Well stop going on about my age." Hermione retorted. "I'm beginning to think you're going to trade me in for a younger model."

"I like having an older witch in my bed." Draco grinned. "Besides, you may be getting on but you're still hot."

"If you mention my age one more time you won't be getting any more action from this hot witch." Hermione threatened, making a show of pulling the covers up over her chest.

Draco pouted as he moved the breakfast things off the bed and onto the floor. "I'm sorry, I'll refrain from mentioning your age for the rest of the weekend."

"Not just this weekend." Hermione said. "You stop altogether."

"Do you mean forever?" Draco checked.

"Yep." Hermione nodded. "There's none of this to happen when I'm forty, or fifty, or any other age."

"Okay." Draco conceded. "I'll never mention your age again."

"Good." Hermione smiled, letting the bedcovers drop from her upper body again. "Now come back to bed, and I can show you that I'm not past it."

"You'll never be past it." Draco chuckled as he pounced on his wife. "We'll be rolling around in bed when we're a hundred."

"A hundred?" Hermione raised an eyebrow at her husband. "You're awfully confident in your own abilities, aren't you? Who says you'll even be able to get it up by then."

"As long as I've got you, I'll always be able to get it up." Draco grinned cockily.

"Why don't you stop talking about the future and act now." Hermione suggested, running her hands down Draco's torso. "You can give me the first of the many birthday presents I expect from you this weekend."

"I thought I gave you the first two present last night." Draco retorted.

"I'm greedy and want more." Hermione replied, as she pulled Draco towards her and connected their lips in order to stop the talking and begin the action.

Draco kept his promise and never mentioned Hermione's age again, but on his thirtieth birthday Hermione couldn't help but tease Draco about the fact he was leaving his twenties behind as well.


	3. Caught

Caught.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Hermione checked with her mother-in-law for the third time.

"We'll be fine." Narcissa replied. "We have looked after a baby before."

Hermione nodded, but she still glanced warily at her three month old son who lay sleeping in his wicker carrying basket. She was supposed to be letting Narcissa take Scorpius for the day, so he could be doted on by his grandparents, but letting him go was proving harder than she expected. So far Hermione had only been separated from her son for a few hours, and even then it was just a case of Draco sending her off for a few hours rest while he looked after their son.

"Just enjoy your day." Narcissa told Hermione as she picked up her grandson's basket. "Believe me, in a few months you'll be praying for someone to take him off your hands for an hour or two."

"I guess so." Hermione sighed. "But if you need anything, don't hesitate to pop back."

"We won't need anything." Narcissa told her daughter-in-law as she headed for the fire. "I'll see you later this evening, enjoy your day."

Before Hermione could argue any more, Narcissa stepped into the fire and disappeared in a whirl of emerald flames. Hermione half wanted to go after Narcissa and bring Scorpius back, but she restrained herself.

"Have they gone?" Draco's voice called from the stairs.

"Yes." Hermione called back. "We're all alone."

"Excellent." Draco grinned as he entered the front room.

Hermione turned to face her husband and smiled as she saw he was completely naked. Letting his parents taken Scorpius had been his idea, as he thought it was time they had a bit of time alone. Hermione had admitted she felt ready for sex again, but she was wary about Scorpius being around. Draco's solution had been to let Lucius and Narcissa have their grandson, while they spent their day having naked fun.

"Someone's keen." Hermione chuckled.

"I didn't really see the point of getting dressed, only to get undressed again." Draco shrugged.

"Not all of us had that option." Hermione told her husband. "Some of us had to get up and get our son ready for his day at the Manor."

"I can soon get you naked." Draco grinned suggestively at his wife. "I've always been talented in that department."

"Yes, you have." Hermione agreed with a laugh. "Let's go back to bed."

"Why?" Draco stopped Hermione as she went to move past him. "We've got the whole house to ourselves, let's have a bit of adventure in our lives."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Draco pulled her into his arms and lowered his lips to hers. Her argument turned into a moan of pleasure as Draco's tongue invaded her mouth and his hands wandered over her still clothed body. As Draco started to peel her clothes away from her body, Hermione forgot all about her protests and just enjoyed her husband's touch. It felt like an age since he'd last touched her with the intention of turning her on, and she intended to enjoy the experience.

"I love seeing you naked." Draco remarked as he removed the last piece of his wife's clothing.

"Even now?" Hermione asked, looking down at her body. Considering she'd just had a baby a few months earlier she was in pretty good shape, but she was still slightly curvier than normal.

"Especially now." Draco grinned, trailing his hands across her soft skin. "I like a few more curves, and I love the fact your breasts are still bigger than normal."

"I swear that was your favourite part of my pregnancy." Hermione laughed as Draco's hands carefully ghosted over her breasts.

"Well, I've always loved your breasts, so there was just more for me to lavish attention on." Draco replied. "Which is what I intend on doing now."

Giving Hermione a wicked grin, Draco led his wife over to the sofa and sat her down. He then knelt on the floor in front of her, spreading her legs and settling himself in between her thighs.

"I thought you were interested in my breasts." Hermione remarked, when Draco's eyes drifted lower than her chest.

"I'm interested in all of you." Draco grinned, looking up at his wife. "I was just taking a peek at your other lovely assets."

Hermione laughed at her husband, before he leant up and connected their lips again. When he broke the kiss, Draco's lips trailed down Hermione's neck and towards her breasts. Hermione knew he planned kissing and caressing his way down her body, and she had no problems with that. Shutting her eyes, she leant her head back and lost herself in the feel of Draco's mouth on her. Eventually Draco travelled lower and using his impressive oral skills he made Hermione climax with a loud cry.

Once Hermione had recovered enough, she turned to her husband who had settled on the sofa beside her. A quick glance revealed his activities had sufficiently aroused him and he was raring to go.

"It looks like it's my turn to lavish attention on you." Hermione smiled, her hand wrapping around his erection.

"Later." Draco told his wife. "Right now, all I want is to be inside you."

"Your wish is my command." Hermione replied.

Without having to stand up, Hermione swung her leg over Draco's hips and moved so she was straddling him. In one more fluid motion she lowered herself onto Draco, which was greeted by contended moans by the pair of them.

"I've missed this." Hermione muttered, nuzzling into Draco's neck.

"Me too." Draco replied, running his hands up his wife's body until they reached the firm globes of her breasts.

Slowly the couple began to move and within a few minutes they were totally caught up in one another. The pair were so engrossed in what they were doing that they failed to hear the floo network sound. They only realised that they weren't alone by a loud squeal that sounded from behind them.

"I'm so sorry." Narcissa cried, covering her eyes with her hand as Draco and Hermione whirled around to face her. "I came to collect Scorpius's dragon, he's crying and he won't settle without it."

As Narcissa was speaking Hermione and Draco had hastily separated. Hermione had pulled the throw from the back of the sofa around her body, while Draco had covered his intimate area with a cushion. Since Draco only had a cushion protecting his modesty he remained seated while Hermione wandered across to her mother-in-law. It was only as she reached his mother that Draco realised the woven material didn't hide her nakedness very well, but he thought he would remain silent.

"Oh look, here it is." Narcissa declared, spotting the dragon on the floor beside the chair where Scorpius's basket had been. It must have fallen out before she picked him up. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you. Although I suppose it's a good thing I didn't send Lucius."

"I suppose it was." Hermione muttered.

"Well, I'll be off now." Narcissa said, keeping her eyes averted from both her son and her daughter-in-law as she rushed back to the fire and flooed back to the Manor.

"Well that was embarrassing." Hermione said, turning to her husband. "I knew we should have gone to the bedroom."

"Perhaps we better take things upstairs." Draco decided, throwing the cushion to one side and standing up. "And that throw is see through by the way. It doesn't hide you at all."

Hermione looked down and gasped as she realised Draco was right, despite being wrapped in the throw you could still see everything she had to offer. Looking back up she opened her mouth to shout at Draco for not telling her sooner, but she just spotted her husband's backside as he retreated from the front room. Following him she headed off upstairs, where they had less chance of being caught.


	4. Dark Mark

Dark Mark.

It was dark when Hermione half woke up. Not wanting to open her eyes fully, she turned over, expecting to snuggle into her husband and fall back to sleep. However the bed beside Hermione was empty, causing her eyes to open properly. Propping herself up on her elbow, she looked at the illuminated clock and saw it was half past two in the morning. Wondering what Draco was doing up in the middle of the night, Hermione hauled herself out of bed and pulled on her dressing gown.

After checking her husband wasn't in the bathroom, Hermione slowly made her way out of the bedroom and peeked into the other rooms on the top floor. Not finding Draco upstairs, Hermione began to make her way down the stairs. Her progress was slower than normal, due to the fact she was eight months pregnant and felt like a whale. Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, Hermione spotted a light coming from underneath the door leading to the front room. Walking across the hallway she pushed the door open and found Draco sitting on the edge of the sofa, wearing just a pair of pyjama bottoms.

"Sorry, did I disturb you?" Draco asked, looking up as his wife entered the room. "I thought I was being quiet."

"You were." Hermione said, sitting down next to her husband. "I just woke up and you were gone. What are you doing down here?"

"Thinking." Draco said, turning his head away from Hermione and looking back down at the floor.

"You're not worried about the baby, are you?" Hermione asked. Throughout the pregnancy the couple had been excited about having a son, but as her due date got nearer Hermione herself started to worry and she often wondered if Draco was plagued by the same doubts that often crept up on her.

"What if I can't do it?" Draco asked quietly. "What if I can't be a good father, I didn't exactly have the best role model in Lucius. We're pretty close now, but growing up I was more terrified of him than anything else. I don't want my son to be scared of me."

"He won't be." Hermione put her arm around her husband as she leant her head on his shoulder. "You're not Lucius."

"Maybe not." Draco conceded. "But we do have one thing in common. One thing that will haunt our families forever."

Hermione was momentarily confused, but then she spotted Draco staring at his left forearm, specifically his faded Dark Mark. Even though Voldemort was long gone, and the Mark was nowhere near as vivid as it once was, the pattern was still very clear. One glance was enough to know that once upon a time Draco had been considered a Death Eater.

"Your mark doesn't define who you are, just like it doesn't define your father." Hermione said. "You've both worked hard to put the past behind you. Neither of you are prejudiced against muggleborns, nor do you have anything to do with the dark arts. We can talk to our children together, and make sure they know the true story behind your mark."

"What? That I was a coward?" Draco snorted. "I did awful things just because I was too scared to seek help."

"We both know that's not true." Hermione scolded her husband. "You were doing what you could to protect your family. Yes, you could have gone to Dumbledore or the Order and you would have been helped, but they couldn't have helped your mother. You couldn't seek help without condemning her."

"That still doesn't change the awful things I did." Draco sighed. "I can't hide from them. I can make excuses, but it doesn't change anything."

"You can't change the past, but your actions since have shown what sort of a person you really are." Hermione said. "I can guarantee that our children will be proud of you. They'll be able to see past the Mark just like I can."

"And what about when they start school?" Draco asked. "Before then we can shield them from what people say about our family, but we can't once they go to school. They'll learn all about the war and Death Eaters in classes, and I'm sure there'll be plenty of children ready to point out that their father was a Death Eater."

"Our children are not going to be stupid Draco, they'll know better than to listen to hurtful gossip." Hermione said. She knew there was no point pretending Draco's worries were unfounded, as she knew it was something they were going to have to face in the future. "Yes, people will talk but we'll deal with it as a family. We'll make sure our children know the true story of your Mark. We can't stop other people talking, but we can at least make sure our children are prepared and know the truth."

"I suppose so." Draco sighed. "I just wish it wasn't an issue. I wish my actions weren't going to come back and haunt our children. They don't deserve to be vilified because I happen to be their father."

"And did you deserve to get the Mark, just because of who your father was?" Hermione retorted. "We both know the Mark was a punishment for Lucius's mistakes. You didn't deserve that, but it doesn't change how you feel about your father, does it? You love him, no matter who is he and what he's done."

"I do." Draco nodded.

There had been occasions when he'd hated his father for what had happened in his teenage years, but that was only brief flashes of anger. On a whole Lucius meant the world to him, especially these days when they were a lot closer than they'd ever been. Draco wouldn't change his father for anything, and he hoped that one day his son would feel the same way about him. Hopefully his children would be able to see beyond his past and accept the boy he'd once been wasn't the man he'd become. Hopefully his children would be proud to call him their father.


	5. Expecting

Expecting.

Sitting on the edge of the bath, Hermione carefully performed the charm to detect pregnancy. Combined with the muggle pregnancy test she'd taken, she was confident that she was indeed pregnant. If her reckoning was right, she figured she must be about four or five weeks gone.

Cleaning the test's away, Hermione headed into the bedroom as she tried to digest the news. The fact she was pregnant wasn't unwelcome news, but it wasn't totally planned for either. Over the course of the last few months Hermione had stopped taking the contraceptive potion as her and Draco decided to let nature take its course. Obviously they'd been hoping a baby would be the end result, but they hadn't been specifically trying to fall pregnant and neither of them had expected it to happen so fast.

Despite the news taking her slightly by surprise, Hermione was thrilled with the thought of becoming a mother. Two of her best friend's, Harry and Ginny, already had a son and Ginny had made no secret that her and Harry had been trying for a second baby for some time. Draco's friends, Theo and Pansy, also had a daughter, while George's wife, Angelina had recently announced she was expecting their first child. Also another couple of friends of theirs, Blaise and Daphne, had confided in Draco and Hermione the other day that Daphne was pregnant, although it was still early days in that pregnancy.

As Hermione's head began filling of images of little mini Draco's, she wondered if her husband would be pleased about her pregnancy. She really hoped he would be as the more the news was sinking in the more excited she was getting. Hermione was already starting to think about what room to use as the nursery, and she was also wondering if Draco would want to carry on the tradition of his mother's family and name their children after constellations and stars. She hoped he did as she'd already found a couple of names she liked way back when they first got married and talked about children.

Trying to control her excitement, Hermione decided to cook Draco a nice meal to tell him the news. Her husband had been working late recently as he looked to acquire a new potions business to incorporate into the one the family firm already owned, so she wasn't sure exactly when he'd be back. Luckily with magic it was easy to keep any meal fresh and no matter what time Draco arrived home dinner could be served.

As it turned out Draco was home earlier than he had been in a while and Hermione was still in the kitchen when her husband entered the house. Hermione was so lost in thoughts about how to break the news to Draco that she didn't even realise her husband was home until he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling at her neck in the process.

"Hey, you're early." Hermione said, jumping slightly as she was taken by surprise at her husband's entrance.

"Works starting to quiet down, and I wanted to come home and spend some time with my beautiful wife." Draco said. "I feel like I've been neglecting you lately."

"You haven't." Hermione reassured her husband as she turned around in his arms. "I understand your work's important. Mine's just as important to me."

"I know." Draco nodded. Hermione worked as a lawyer for the Ministry and it wouldn't the first time that his wife had ended up working late into the night. "And since you've been so good about my hours, I'll not complain next time you take on a big case and have to work late."

"Actually, I don't think that's going to be happening for a while." Hermione replied, deciding that Draco had given her the perfect opening to mention her pregnancy. "In fact, I'll soon be taking time off work."

"You, taking time off work?" Draco laughed in disbelief. "Why?"

"In a few months I'll have to be taking maternity leave." Hermione grinned.

"Maternity leave." Draco repeated dumbly, until the realisation hit him and his face lit up in a huge smile. "You're pregnant."

Hermione barely had time to confirm she was expecting, before Draco had swept her off her feet and swung her around. When he put her down he gave a long kiss, all the time grinning like an idiot.

"I take it you're happy then." Hermione chuckled.

"I'm thrilled." Draco answered. "You are pleased, aren't you?"

"I am." Hermione confirmed.

"Well I think we should celebrate." Draco told his wife.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Hermione smirked, although she knew full well how Draco thought they should celebrate.

"In our usual style." Draco replied.

"But what about dinner?" Hermione asked, gesturing to the oven behind her.

"That, my darling, is the beauty of magic." Draco grinned, casting a few charms on the food. "We can leave it here, and come back when we've really worked up an appetite."

Hermione laughed as Draco scooped her up in his arms and apparated them to the bedroom. They then set about celebrating the fact they would soon become parents, working up an appetite as they did so. Once they'd ate they returned to bed when they spent the remainder of the night revelling in their happy news.


	6. Flying

Flying.

Hermione had never enjoyed flying, and for a long time she'd failed to see why people were so fascinated by it. That was until she really watched Draco on a broom, and learnt to appreciate the skills it took to expertly manoeuvre a bit of wood. Hermione would have liked to have been able to say watching Draco fly had made it enjoyable to watch anyone fly, but that would have been a lie. Truthfully she still found flying boring, but she liked to watch Draco on a broom.

Hermione's fascination with watching her boyfriend fly had started not long after they started dating. As the weather picked up and the summer drew nearer Draco spent more time on his broom, and as such Hermione spent more time studying for exams outside. Luckily for Hermione she was well on top of her school revision as usually when she was outside the only thing she was studying was Draco.

Despite becoming fond of watching Draco fly, Hermione had refused to entertain the idea of getting on a broom herself. Draco had tried to persuade her to come flying with him, but when she refused he never pushed the issue, although he did vow that one day he would get her up in the sky.

That day came on Draco's nineteenth birthday. Since they'd only been together since early January, Hermione was slightly unsure what to get her boyfriend for a present. In the end she'd given him a brand new set of potions books, since it was a subject he was passionate about, and a promise that she would do whatever he wanted for him. Hermione fully expected him to request something sexual as they were just starting to explore the physical side of their relationship, but he'd totally shocked her by asking to take her for a fly.

"Are you sure I can't persuade you to go for something else?" Hermione asked, as she looked warily at Draco's broom hovering beside them. "I'll do anything."

"I'm not going to ask you for something sexual." Draco told his girlfriend. "Whatever we do in the bedroom, or elsewhere for that matter, has to be something you're completely happy with. I don't want you doing something just because I asked you to."

"But you're happy to get me on a broom when you know I hate flying." Hermione retorted.

"You could say no." Draco pointed out. "The books are a great present, you don't have to give me anything else."

"But you really want to do this, don't you?" Hermione asked. She'd known from the minute Draco first mentioned taking her for a fly that it was something he really wanted to do.

"I'd love to take you for a fly." Draco told his girlfriend. "The view of Hogwarts from the sky is spectacular, and I know you'll love it. But if you're not happy, then we can do something else."

"I promised to do what you wanted, so I'll do it." Hermione said determinedly. "Just don't blame me if I hold onto you too tight and crack a rib or something. And there may be screaming involved."

"I do love to hear you scream." Draco smirked, causing Hermione to blush at the implication behind the words. "But hopefully you won't be screaming this afternoon. And as for breaking my ribs, you won't because you're going to sit in front of me. That way I can keep a tight hold of you and keep you safe."

Hermione was still unsure of the entire thing, but she followed Draco's instructions and climbed onto the broom. She didn't feel completely safe until Draco had also settled on the broom and his strong arms wrapped around her. Before they set off, Draco ensured Hermione was pressed firmly against his front and that she was completely secure in his embrace.

"Are you ready?" He asked.

Hermione nodded one and squeezed her eyes shut as Draco kicked off the floor and she felt the broom begin to rise off the ground. Knowing how nervous Hermione was, Draco rose slowly and steadily into the air. To get Hermione used to the sensation he slowly circled the castle a few times, before soaring higher into the clear blue sky.

"You'll see a whole lot better if you open your eyes." Draco told his girlfriend.

"Are we very high?" Hermione asked.

"High enough to get a stunning view." Draco replied. "Don't worry, I'll not let you fall."

"I know." Hermione said as she slowly cracked open her eyes.

Draco was slowly flying them over the castle and Hermione had to admit the view was breath-taking. Hogwarts looked absolutely gorgeous nestled in the middle of the countryside, and for miles she could see nothing but beautiful scenery. Hermione was also surprised that she didn't mind the feeling of the wind rippling past them as they flew, but then again they were moving pretty slowly. Any faster and Hermione knew she would be screaming her head off, begging Draco to take her down to earth.

"I admit, this is gorgeous." Hermione said, making the most of the view as she never intended to be this high in the air again. "Thank you from bringing me up here."

"Thank you for agreeing to come." Draco replied, planting a kiss on Hermione's cheek.

The pair stayed up in the sky for another half hour, and by the time they landed Hermione agreed to consider possibly letting Draco take her for a fly another time. As it turned out going for a fly became an annual ritual for the couple. Every birthday Hermione would make Draco the same offer of doing something he wanted and he always picked a quick fly.


	7. Grief

Grief.

It was still early when Draco woke up, and for a moment he considered rolling over and going back to sleep since it was a Sunday. However Draco knew that in a few hours the rest of the eighth years would be up and the dorm would be bustling with activity. It wasn't that Draco didn't like his fellow students who had returned to Hogwarts to retake their final year, it was just that he preferred the peace and quiet before everyone get up.

Getting up, Draco quickly used one of the two bathrooms shared by all eight returning students, before returning to his own room to get dressed. Since only eight students had accepted the offer to repeat their seventh year, a new set of dorms had been set up on the fourth floor and each student had their own private bedroom. The dorms also consisted of two bathrooms, a common room and a small kitchen in case students didn't want to go down to the Great Hall to eat.

Leaving his bedroom, Draco headed off downstairs to grab some breakfast. When he arrived in the common room he found the only returning Gryffindor, Hermione, kneeling by the fire. A quick glance at the brunette witch showed Draco that she was stroking her ginger cat that was curled up in his basket in front of the flames.

"Morning, Granger." Draco called as he headed for the kitchen. Since returning to school the pair had put the past behind them and were beginning to develop a friendship.

When Hermione didn't answer, Draco turned and looked at the brunette witch. Now he was looking at her properly he could see tears running down her cheeks and her shoulders shaking from the small sobs she was emitting.

"What's wrong?" He asked, walking over to the fireplace and kneeling down beside Hermione.

"Crookshanks is dead." Hermione sniffed, her hands still running over her cat's soft fur. "He must have passed away during the night."

"I'm sorry, Granger." Draco said sincerely. "Is there anything I can do?"

"I want to bury him, could you help?" Hermione asked, looking up at Draco with tear filled eyes.

"Of course." Draco nodded. "Do you know where you want him to be laid to rest?"

"There's a tree near the Black Lake, he used to curl up under it in the summer." Hermione replied. "I think he would like it there."

"Just let me grab my shoes, and we'll be off." Draco said as he got to his feet.

"Malfoy." Hermione called, stopping Draco as he was about to ascended the stairs. "Thank you."

Draco gave Hermione a quick smile, before rushing off to grab his shoes. Once he had his shoes on, and grabbed a jacket since the October air was chilly, Draco returned to where Hermione was waiting for him in the common room. She'd also put some shoes on, and her jacket was lying over the back of the sofa. When Hermione went to pick up Crookshanks, Draco stepped in and picked up the cat basket where the cat was curled up.

"Thank you." Hermione whispered, pleased she didn't have the burden of carrying Crookshanks out into the grounds.

Grabbing her jacket, Hermione led the way out of the dorm room and through the school. When they reached the ground floor, Hermione pulled open the front doors and the pair made their way to the tree that Crookshanks had loved so much. Draco carefully laid the basket on the floor and pulling out his wand, he used magic to dig a deep hole. He knew the hole needed to be deep so any other animals wouldn't come along and dig poor Crookshanks up again. Once the hole was dug, Hermione stepped forward and gently placed her cat in his final resting place.

"Bye, Crooks." She whispered. "I'll never forget you."

When Hermione stepped back, Draco filled the hole back in. He then decided something else was needed in order to commemorate the cat, so he turned his attention to the bark of the tree. Using magic he engraved the cat's name into the tree as an everlasting memorial to the ginger feline.

"Thank you, Malfoy." Hermione said, smiling slightly at the sight of Crookshanks' name etched into the tree.

"I'm only doing what any good friend would do." Draco replied.

"I appreciate it." Hermione told him, before she returned her attention to the tree and let her thoughts wander over memories of her beloved cat.

As the pair stood under the tree in the cold, Draco's hand found Hermione's and clasped it gently. The pair stood in silence for several minutes before they turned around and headed back into school, still holding hands.


	8. Halloween

Halloween.

Considering she was a witch, Hermione never really bothered much with Halloween. Before she'd gone to Hogwarts, Hermione's family had never really bothered to mark the occasion, it was just another day to them. Even at Hogwarts, Hermione would attend the large feasts but she failed to get caught up in the spirit of the holiday like everyone else. Once she'd left school Halloween had just failed to register on her radar, until a six year old Scorpius wanted a Halloween party.

Scorpius had been watching the television and on one of the cartoons he'd been watching they celebrated Halloween with a party. Hermione and Draco had been unsure of the idea, but their son were determined and he managed to sweet talk them into agreeing to hold a kids fancy dress Halloween party. Luckily all their friends had kids, so the guest list was pretty easy to sort out.

Once Hermione had agreed to the party she went all out to ensure it was the best Halloween party ever. She'd bought and made a pile of Halloween themed food and drink and set it all up on the dining room table. She'd decorated the ground floor of the house, and turned the front room into a games room where she'd set up all sorts of spooky games for the children.

"Wow, this is great." Scorpius beamed when he entered the front room and saw what his mother had done to the place.

"I'm pleased you like it." Hermione told her son. "Now go and get your costume on."

"I need Dad to charm my teeth." Scorpius called as he ran off to change. He was going to be a vampire and rather than using false fangs, Draco had promised to charm his real teeth into temporary fangs.

Heading upstairs in search of her husband, Hermione found Draco in Lyra's nursery. The eleven month old was happily crawling about the floor as Draco sat playing with her. Hermione watched the pair for a couple of minutes, before entering the room and making her presence known.

"Your son needs help with his teeth." Hermione told her husband, swopping down and picking Lyra up. "And this little one needs to get into her outfit."

Hermione had bought Lyra a little pumpkin outfit, and she couldn't wait to try it on her daughter. In fact the shop she'd gotten the outfit from had other cute dressing up outfits and Hermione was already wondering about other themed parties so she could dress Lyra up again.

"I suppose I should be grateful you're not making me dress up." Draco chuckled as he got to his feet.

"I prefer it if we kept our dressing up for the bedroom." Hermione told her husband. "Speaking of which, I brought myself an outfit when I went shopping for the kids. I'll model it for you later."

"How about wearing it for the party." Draco suggested.

"It's really not suitable for a kid's party." Hermione teased. "It's a naughty devil outfit, and it leaves very little to the imagination."

"Let's get this party over with." Draco replied with a grin. "I want a piece of devil action."

Hermione laughed as her husband rushed off to go and help Scorpius with a huge smile on her face. With the sexy outfit to look forward to, Hermione knew Draco would be in a great mood for the rest of the day. That meant he wouldn't complain throughout the party, and in all likelihood would be more than happy to join in with the kid's fun and games.

By the time Lyra was in her adorable pumpkin outfit, Scorpius and Draco had already headed downstairs. They'd briefly popped in to show off Scorpius's outfit, but the six year old wanted to be down stairs so he didn't miss his guests. Hermione had just reached the bottom of the stairs, with Lyra in her arms, when the doorbell rang. Before she had a chance to answer it, Scorpius flew out of the front room and was pulling open the door.

"Happy Halloween." Harry called as the Potter's entered the house.

Alongside Harry and Ginny were their three kids, James, Albus and Lily. Their eldest James who was eight, was wearing a Spiderman outfit. Scorpius's best friend, Albus, was also a vampire and the two six year olds were comparing fangs. Five year old Lily meanwhile was dressed as a princess.

"The games are in the front room, and the foods in the dining room." Hermione told her friends, just as the doorbell rang again.

Moving past Harry and Ginny, Hermione opened the door to reveal Ron, Luna and their five year old twin's, Rosalie and Daniel. Rosalie and Daniel were dressed as a fairy and a cowboy respectively. Hermione ushered her friends into the house, and sent them off into the madness before the doorbell rang again heralding the arrival of yet more Weasley's, this time in the form of George, his wife Angelina and their two children, little Fred and Roxanne.

Little Fred was the same age as Scorpius and Albus, and the three alongside Blaise and Daphne's son Jake, who was also the same age, were the best of friends. Roxanne was younger than the boys at four and looked gorgeous in her little butterfly outfit. Little Fred was yet again dressed as a vampire and as he rushed off to find Scorpius and Albus, Hermione suspected the boys had coordinated their outfits. She would bet anything that when Jake showed up, he was also a vampire.

Sure enough when Blaise and Daphne turned up their son was a vampire. Also with Blaise and Daphne was their daughter, Izzy, who'd just had her first birthday the previous week. Izzy was dressed in a cute peacock outfit that Hermione had briefly considered buying for Lyra. Shortly after Blaise and Daphne had arrived the final couple, Pansy and Theo, arrived with their seven year old daughter Leah, who was dressed as a mermaid.

With everyone in residence the fun really began and everyone had a great time. Hermione ensured that every child won at least one of the games and went home with a specially picked prize. By the end of the afternoon, everyone had enjoyed themselves so much that the group decided it would be an annual event. Each year a different couple would host the party to make sure all the burden didn't fall on Draco and Hermione.

Of course once the party was over and the children were safely tucked up in bed, Hermione and Draco had their own bit of fancy dress fun. Hermione's naughty devil outfit went down a treat and she promised Draco that she would dress up every Halloween. She might not have celebrated Halloween before, but she certainly would in the future.


	9. Illness

Illness.

Hermione awoke with a pounding headache, a sore throat and a runny nose. Being ill was not the way Hermione had intended to spend her weekend. Hermione had intended to spend the entire weekend with her boyfriend, but she doubted Draco would want to spend time with someone who looked and felt as bad as she did.

With a massive effort on her part, Hermione dragged herself from her bed and tried to make herself look a bit more presentable. A quick search of her bathroom cabinet revealed she had nothing to help alleviate her symptoms of flu, so until she could be bothered to go out she would have to struggle on. With the rough way she felt, Hermione managed to pull on a pair of jogging pants and a t-shirt and she tied her hair back, but that was all she did do. Draco would have to take her or leave her, and if he didn't like it he could go and spend his weekend elsewhere.

When Draco did arrive at Hermione's, he let himself into her flat with the spare key she'd given to him. Draco's joyful greeting died on his lips when he spotted Hermione curled up on the sofa, sipping a hot cup of tea.

"You look dreadful." Draco grimaced.

"Thanks." Hermione muttered. "I'm so pleased you came to cheer me up."

"I was just saying." Draco replied defensively. "So, I'm guessing this weekend's off."

"Sorry." Hermione said.

"I'm sure we can reschedule for another time." Draco reassured his girlfriend.

"Thanks." Hermione smiled at Draco. "You don't have to stay you know. Feel free to go and do something else this weekend."

"And what are you going to do if I go?" Draco questioned. "Who's going to look after you?"

"I'm a big girl, I can look after myself." Hermione replied with a sniff.

"It looks like it." Draco muttered. "Have you taken anything to make you feel better?"

"I've got nothing like that in the flat." Hermione admitted. "But I'll be fine with some rest."

"You'll be fine with some TLC." Draco said. "Stay there, I'll be back before you know it."

From her position curled up on the sofa, Hermione watched as Draco departed from her flat. She half expected not to see her boyfriend again until she was better, but an hour later he returned carrying a large bag.

"What on earth is all that?" Hermione asked.

"Just a few essentials." Draco replied as he began to unpack the bag onto the coffee table.

It would seem that Draco had visited both the wizarding and muggle worlds for his flu remedies. As well as simple things like tissues, he'd brought several potions designed to help alleviate the flu and several muggle remedies like hot lemons and flu capsules.

"For the rest of the weekend, I'm completely at your disposal." Draco told his girlfriend as he handed her a box of tissues and a flu potion.

"Thank you." Hermione said, drowning the potion in one go and handing the empty vial back to her boyfriend.

"I've even sorted lunch." Draco continued. "I called at the Manor and commandeered one of our elves. She's going to whip you up some chicken soup and drop it round later."

Normally Hermione would have complained about the use of house elves, but she was just so grateful for Draco's help that she let the matter slide.

"Since we're stuck indoors, I suppose this is a good time for you to teach me more about the television and films." Draco told his girlfriend. "We can snuggle up and watch the moving pictures."

"We can watch films, but we can't snuggle up." Hermione argued. "If you get too close then you'll get sick as well."

"I won't get sick." Draco tutted as he marched over to the sofa.

Settling down in the corner, he pulled Hermione into his side and covered her over with the throw she kept draped over the back of the sofa. Despite her protests about Draco getting ill, she snuggled into her boyfriend.

"You can't blame me if you get sick." She murmured.

"I won't." Draco repeated dropping a kiss on the top of his girlfriend's head as they settled down for the weekend.

For the rest of the weekend, Draco waited on Hermione hand and foot and by Sunday night she was starting to feel much better. By the time she woke up on Monday she still had a bit of a sniffle, but on a whole she was fine. Draco was rather pleased with his efforts at taking care of his girlfriend, and to celebrate her feeling better he suggested they should spend the following weekend together. However as it turned out Hermione had been right and Draco ended up catching her cold. So for the second week in a row their romantic weekend was cancelled, only this time it was Hermione playing nursemaid to a sick Draco.


	10. Jealousy

Jealousy.

Draco felt his jealously bubbling up as he watched Hermione kiss and hug a procession of redheads. Of course there was Harry as well, but Draco wasn't particularly jealous of the raven haired wizard. Firstly Harry was far too in love with Ginny to even look at Hermione as anything other than a friend, and secondly, Hermione herself had told him that she shared a sibling like relationship with Harry. However, even though Hermione considered the Weasley's family, Draco had never heard her refer to any of the redheads as being like brothers.

Despite the fact he wanted to tear the Weasley's off Hermione, Draco controlled himself. It was Hermione's birthday, their first as a couple, and he didn't want to spoil the day for her. Also it was the first time he was really meeting the Weasley's as Hermione's boyfriend, and given the bad history between his family and theirs he didn't want to give them a chance to badmouth him and dislike him. Personally Draco wasn't that bothered what the family thought of him, but they were important to Hermione so he knew they would all have to learn to get along.

"If looks could kill we'd have a pile of dead Weasley's littering Hermione's flat." Harry joked as he came up beside Draco. "I take it you don't like that fact they're pretty hands on."

"I know she's not going to do anything, but I still don't like it." Draco admitted. "Must they all kiss and hug her."

"It's just their way." Harry shrugged. "Although I think George may be playing up the attention because he can see it's winding you up."

"Bloody Weasley's." Draco muttered.

Harry laughed at Draco, before he headed off to sit next to Ginny. When Harry headed off, Hermione broke away from the Weasley's and made her way over to her boyfriend.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah." Draco smiled at his girlfriend, pleased that she was Weasley free for the first time that evening.

"You don't look it." Hermione remarked. "I've been watching you, and you don't look happy."

"I'm surprised you noticed me through your throngs of admirers." Draco retorted without thinking.

"Ah, that's it." Hermione grinned as she realised what her boyfriend's problem was. "You're jealous."

"I am not jealous of Weasley's." Draco insisted. Hermione merely raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend, and he let out a defeated sigh. "Okay, maybe I'm a bit jealous." He admitted. "But they had their hands all over you."

"They were wishing me a happy birthday." Hermione laughed.

"I spotted wandering hands from at least one Weasley." Draco muttered.

"That was just George being George." Hermione said. "He didn't mean anything by it. He was just telling me that he's got a date with Angelina Johnson next week."

"That name rings a bell." Draco said thoughtfully, trying to remember where he'd heard the name before.

"She was the twin's year at school." Hermione told her boyfriend. "She played chaser on the quidditch team."

"Oh yes, I remember her now. She was quite hot if I remember correctly. George's landed on his feet there." Draco smirked.

"You think Angelina is hot?" Hermione questioned with a frown.

"Now who's the jealous one?" Draco grinned, pulling Hermione into his arms. "Luckily, I only have eyes for you." He smiled at his girlfriend.

"You just keep it that way." Hermione warned.

"And you make sure them Weasley's keep their hands to themselves." Draco countered.

"Deal." Hermione smiled, as she leant up and connected her lips with Draco's, putting an end to his jealousy for the rest of the night.


	11. Kiss

Kiss.

"Okay you two, it's time you were going." Madam Pince called as she rounded the bookshelves to where Draco and Hermione were sitting studying at the back table.

"Is it time to shut the library already?" Hermione asked, checking her watch and finding that it was indeed time for the library to be closing for the night.

"Looks like we got carried away again." Draco chuckled as they began to pack up their bags and leave the library.

Over the last few months the pair had become regular study buddies, and would spend hours either in the library or in the eighth year dorms doing homework and revising for their exams. Hermione loved the fact that for once she had someone with the same abilities to study with. She'd never minded studying with Harry and Ron, but with them it was more like she was just helping them, whereas with Draco he could manage his own work just fine. Draco meanwhile was just pleased he'd found someone who took studying seriously. His best friend, Blaise, only did homework when necessary and even though he'd returned to school he was more concerned with his love life. The pair also enjoyed challenging one another and they would often have heated debates on all sort of topics. Of course the pair had also taken to flirting with one another, but so far nothing had happened between them.

Making their way back to the dorms the pair chatted happily together. When they entered the common room they found the place deserted, due to the late hour. Together the pair headed off upstairs, before coming to a halt outside of Hermione's bedroom.

"Night, Granger." Draco said.

"Goodnight, Malfoy." Hermione replied, inwardly sighing as it looked like yet another evening would pass without anything happening between them.

When Draco turned to head off to his own room, Hermione opened her bedroom door. As she began to enter the room she heard Draco muttering to himself before she heard him heading back towards her. Turning around she came face to face with a determined looking Draco.

"I should have done this ages ago." Draco told Hermione, before lowering his head and catching her lips in a forceful kiss.

Despite being momentarily stunned it didn't take Hermione long to react to the kiss. Wrapping her arms around Draco's neck, she opened her mouth to welcome his invading tongue. As the kiss continued to get heated, Draco pulled Hermione as close as she could get to him. Hermione hummed contently at the feel of Draco's hard body pressed against her. It felt so right to be in his arms and she would willingly stay there all night.

Unfortunately all good things had to come to an end and eventually the couple had to part for air. Despite their lips separating, Draco and Hermione remained wrapped in each other's arms.

"Wow." Hermione breathed finally, breaking the silence.

"You can say that again." Draco muttered.

"So what happens now?" Hermione asked, looking up into Draco's grey eyes.

"We go on a date to Hogsmeade." Draco replied. "And if I'm lucky I get to kiss you like that again."

"I'll go with you to Hogsmeade on one condition." Hermione told the blond Slytherin. "You start calling me by my proper name."

"You've got yourself a deal, Hermione." Draco replied with a smile. "Now, do I get a goodnight kiss?"

"Definitely." Hermione grinned, reconnecting their lips for a second time.

The second kiss was just as explosive as the first and by the time they parted they were both gasping for air. But again they still didn't separate, and the pair shared two more kisses before reluctantly disentangling themselves from each other. With the prospect of a date hanging over them the pair finally did go their separate ways for the night, and both of them fell asleep with large smiles on their faces.


	12. Library

Library.

"We really shouldn't be doing this." Hermione giggled as her fiancé led her through the crowds gracing the Manor's elaborately decorated ballroom.

The pair were at the Manor to celebrate his parent's wedding anniversary, but Draco had suggested they briefly slip out of the party for a bit of fun. Despite her protests, Hermione was more than up for the idea. She just didn't want anyone to spot them leaving and question where they were going. Luckily Draco was an expert at sneaking around and he managed to spirit them out of a side door without anyone noticing.

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked, as Draco led her through the corridors of his childhood home. Despite being a regular visitor to the Manor, Hermione still got lost in the vast house and in the darkness she had no idea where they were headed.

"The library." Draco replied. "I've always wanted to have my wicked way with you in a library."

"So you mentioned in school." Hermione chuckled.

Draco had mentioned his fantasy a couple of times once they started dating in school, but Hermione refused to let him act on it. The thought of having sex in the library had actually been rather appealing, but what wasn't appealing was the thought of getting caught. Despite the dark corners in the library, Hermione was convinced that Madam Pince would catch them. Over the years she'd witnessed the librarian catch many an amorous couple, it was as though she had a sixth sense that told her someone was getting up to hijinks in her library.

"Since you reckoned it was too dangerous in school, I thought we could make do with the Manor's library." Draco said as they entered the vast room and he shut the doors firmly behind them.

"What if someone comes in?" Hermione questioned.

"Who's going to come in? They're all the party." Draco replied, advancing on Hermione. "You know you want to."

Hermione laughed, knowing Draco was right. Since everyone was at the party the chances of getting caught were slim, and she most definitely wanted to act out Draco's fantasy. Ever since he'd mentioned it earlier in the night she'd been getting more and more turned on whenever she thought of what they were going to do.

Knowing he wasn't going to get anymore arguments from his fiancée, Draco told hold of Hermione's hand and led her further into the library. Finding an appropriate dark corner, Draco pinned Hermione against a sturdy shelf and connected their lips in a passionate kiss. As his lips began trailing down Hermione's neck, she let out a quiet moan.

"When you said you wanted to shag in the library, I thought you meant using a desk or something." Hermione remarked as Draco nuzzled at her neck.

"We can use a desk in my study or something." Draco replied. "In here, I want to take you up against the books."

Again Hermione chuckled in response, but her laughter soon turned to moans as Draco pulled her strapless dress down and started lavishing attention on her breasts. Hermione emitted a whimper of disappointment a few moments later when Draco ceased his attention on her breasts, but her disappointment didn't last long as Draco fell to his knees and hiked her short skirt up over her hips.

"Someone's enjoying themselves." Draco chuckled, teasing Hermione through her knickers.

"I'd be enjoying myself more if you took them off." Hermione moaned.

"Anything you desire." Draco replied, giving Hermione a wicked grin before he began to slowly remove her flimsy knickers.

Discarding Hermione's underwear on the floor, Draco pulled one of Hermione's legs over his shoulder before getting to work on making his fiancée scream. After a few minutes, Hermione was on the brink of orgasm, but before she could reach her climax the pair heard the library door open and shut. Freezing at the sound, the couple shared a panicked look as they heard footsteps heading their way.

Draco quickly jumped up from his position keeling beside Hermione, while she quickly readjusted her dress to cover herself. Hermione had just gotten the material over her breasts when Lucius and Narcissa appeared from around the shelves.

"What are you two doing in here?" Lucius asked, not looking too happy to find the couple hiding away in the library.

"I was just showing Hermione the library." Draco replied, the lie falling off his tongue with ease. "You know how she loves books."

"Haven't you shown her the library before now?" Narcissa asked with a teasing smile.

"Yes, but I know father's just had some new books arrive from America, so I was showing her them." Draco answered. "And since we've seen them, we'll be off."

Draco took hold of Hermione's hand, and the couple made their way past his parents who were sharing an amused look. They knew that Draco couldn't have been showing Hermione the new books since Lucius still had them in his study. He hadn't even unpacked them, let alone placed them in the library.

Draco and Hermione had just reached the doors to the library when Lucius's voice called for them. Turning around, Hermione's mouth dropped open as she spotted her future father-in-law standing with her knickers hooked around his finger.

"I think you may have left these behind." Lucius smirked.

Blushing furiously, Hermione grabbed her knickers from Lucius before practically dragging Draco from the library. As they shut the door behind them, they both heard Lucius and Narcissa laughing at what had just happened. Slipping into a nearby empty room, Hermione put her knickers back on before the couple headed back to the party.

While Draco and Hermione hadn't managed to have sex in the library, the room did see some action that night. As soon as the pair had left the room, Lucius cast a spell to prevent anyone entering before he and Narcissa celebrated their anniversary with a quickie against the bookshelves.


	13. Missing

Missing.

Hermione was in Flourish and Blotts when she endured the worst ten minutes of her life. Hermione and Draco had headed to Diagon Alley to do a spot of shopping with their ten month old son, Scorpius. Both Hermione and Draco had a few things they each wanted, but for a while they'd shopped together.

After ten minutes in Flourish and Blotts, Draco had decided he would pop to the apothecary and be back while Hermione was browsing books. Hermione vaguely heard her husband say goodbye as she scoured the latest section of cooking and household spells books. Since she refused to have a house elf, Hermione did the cooking and cleaning herself, with some help from Draco.

After picking a couple of new cookbooks, Hermione turned around to grab Scorpius's pram, and found her ten month old son was missing from it. Hermione looked around in a panic, looking to spot if anyone had her son. She didn't want to believe that someone would snatch Scorpius, but she knew it was a possibility. Hermione knew there were still plenty of people that didn't believe Draco and his family should have escaped a prison sentence at the end of the war, and bad feeling towards the Malfoy's was still present in Wizarding Britain. Hermione herself even came in for some abuse from some corners, and it wasn't the first time that someone had refused to let her act as their lawyer because of her surname.

Not spotting anyone suspicious in the aisle she was in, Hermione dropped her books to the floor, grabbed hold of the empty pram and began searching the shop for her son. Hermione asked several people if they'd seen her son and within minutes the word began to spread that there was a frantic mother searching for her lost child. When it became clear Scorpius wasn't in the bookshop, Hermione hurried outside to check the street.

By this point tears were running down her face, as the panic began to take root. When she spotted the familiar head of her husband through the crowds a sob tore out of her at the realisation she would have to tell Draco she'd lost their son. When the crowds parted slightly and Hermione got a good view of her husband, her panic turned to relief. Sitting nestled in Draco's arms, happily watching the crowds, was Scorpius.

"Scorpius." Hermione cried, leaving his pram outside the bookshop and rushing forward to pluck her son from his father's arms.

"What's going on?" Draco questioned, frowning when he spotted that his wife had been crying. "Why have you been crying?"

"I thought he was gone." Hermione said, hugging her son close. "I turned round and he was missing."

"I told you I was taking Scorpius with me." Draco told Hermione as he pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry, I should have made sure you had heard me. You nodded, but your head was in a book at the time."

"It's okay." Hermione reassured Draco, not wanting him to blame himself because she hadn't been paying attention. "He's safe, that's all that matters."

"It is." Draco agreed. "But I think that could possibly be enough adventure for the day. Why don't we go home and spend the afternoon snuggled up on the sofa, just the three of us."

"I'd like that." Hermione said, her heart rate finally returning to normal as they walked over to the pram and settled Scorpius inside.

With a completely safe Scorpius nestled in his pram, the couple decided to forgo the rest of their shopping trip in favour of returning home. And in the future they were always very clear as to who Scorpius was with, so neither Draco nor Hermione experienced the torture Hermione had gone through when she briefly thought she'd lost her son.


	14. Nightmares

Nightmares.

It was the early hours of the morning when Draco was awoken by an arm slamming into his face. The pain made Draco curse out loud as he sat up, wondering what was going on. His question was soon answered as a whimper drew his attention to the figure beside him. Hermione was clearly in the throes of a bed dream as she moaned and thrashed about on the bed.

Draco looked at Hermione, wondering what to do. It was the first night Hermione had stayed in his room, and he hadn't expected to be woken up by her having a bad dream. Normally after they'd been messing around, Hermione went back to her room, but this time Draco had convinced her to spend the whole night with him. He'd reassured her that they could wake up early and she could be back in her room before the other eighth years woke up.

When Hermione continued to thrash around and her whimpers turned to cries of no, Draco settled back down in the bed and pulled his girlfriend into his arms. Whispering soothing words to her, he held her and stroked her hair until the moaning and thrashing stopped and she calmed down. Once he was satisfied Hermione had drifted back off to sleep, Draco also let himself go back to sleep, although he continued to hold onto his girlfriend.

In the morning, Draco's wand emitted an alarm to wake the couple. Reaching over to the bedside table, Draco stopped the alarm before turning to Hermione, who was stretching as she woke up.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Hermione questioned.

"I was just wondering if you were alright after your dream." Draco replied.

"Dream." Hermione repeated with wide eyes.

Hermione had been having nightmares since the end of the war, and usually she woke herself up screaming. Her nightmares were the reason she'd refused to stay in Draco's room before now, but she had been hoping that his presence in bed beside her would eliminate the dreams. Since she hadn't woken herself up she'd assumed her night had been dream free.

"You were thrashing about and moaning." Draco told his girlfriend. "I didn't want to wake you, so I just held you until you calmed down."

"Thank you." Hermione smiled at her boyfriend. "I can't even remember it, you must have stopped it before it got to the bad parts."

"Do you have nightmares often?" Draco asked cautiously. He didn't want to pry into his girlfriend's private business, but if he could he wanted to help her.

Hermione nodded and lowered her eyes to the emerald green sheets that covered Draco's bed. "I have them a couple of times a week."

"What are they about?" Draco asked. "You don't have to tell me, I just thought it might help to talk about them."

"Mainly they're about the war." Hermione said, letting Draco pull her back into his arms. "I relive things that happened, but the endings always turn out worse. The Death Eaters always catch us and torture us, more people are killed in the battle, that sort of stuff."

"I used to have dreams like that." Draco admitted quietly. "In sixth year I used to dream about Voldemort threatening my mother, only in my dreams he always killed her."

"How did you get them to go away?" Hermione asked, looking up at her boyfriend.

"They faded once Voldemort was gone and I knew my mother was safe." Draco answered. "Maybe your dreams will fade when you accept you're safe."

"I feel safe with you." Hermione admitted.

"Good." Draco hugged Hermione tighter and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I will always keep you safe."

"I know you will." Hermione said, stifling a yawn. "It's still early, maybe we should go back to sleep."

"I thought you wanted to be in your own room when people got up." Draco said.

"They all know we're together so it doesn't really matter." Hermione shrugged. "Besides, I like it here with you. I don't think I'll be using my bed much for the rest of the year."

Hermione was completely right and after her first night in Draco's room she spent the rest of the year sleeping in Draco's bed. Draco was also right about Hermione's nightmares fading. Whenever they started, he made sure they never got too bad and by the end of the year she wasn't having any bad dreams at all. With Draco she felt safe, and as a result the nightmares had gone.


	15. Office

Office.

Hermione had only been back off honeymoon for just over a week, and already she was swamped with work. One busy Thursday lunchtime she decided to forgo leaving the office for lunch and try to plough through some paperwork. Instead Hermione grabbed a cup of coffee and sandwich from the canteen and returned to her desk. Ten minutes into her lunch break, Hermione was disturbed by her husband entering her office.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, barely glancing up from her paperwork.

"I came to see if you wanted to have lunch." Draco replied.

"This is my lunch." Hermione said, gesturing to the half-eaten sandwich and half drank cup of coffee on her desk.

"Can't you spare ten minutes for your husband?" Draco asked, walking around Hermione's desk so he was standing behind his wife. "I'll make it worth your while." He whispered, brushing his lips against her neck.

"Draco, I'm busy." Hermione scolded, although she tilted her head to the side to allow her husband better access to her neck.

"A break won't hurt you." Draco replied, sliding his hands down Hermione's arms and around her front. "It'll do you good to relax."

Hermione murmured in agreement and closed her eyes as Draco continued to nuzzle at her neck. A few seconds later her eyes shot open as Draco's hands slid under her blouse and up towards her breasts.

"What are you doing?" She hissed, trying not to moan as Draco ran his thumbs over her nipples, causing them to harden beneath her lacy bra.

"Helping you to relax." Draco said.

"What if someone comes in?" Hermione questioned, glancing towards her door.

"That's the fun." Draco smirked.

"You're so wicked." Hermione grumbled, tilting her head back so she could look up at her husband.

"That's why you love me." He retorted, before capturing her lips in a heated kiss.

Despite her better judgement, Hermione let herself be swept up by her husband's suggestion of a bit of relaxation. Abandoning her work, Hermione spent the rest of her lunchtime using her desk for something much more pleasurable then paperwork.

"I can't believe you talked me into that." Hermione said as she straightened her clothes once they were finished. "I would have been in so much trouble if someone had walked in."

"It's lunchtime, who's going to walk in during lunchtime?" Draco questioned.

"You never know." Hermione shrugged. "The Ministry's a busy place, anyone could have walked in."

"Next time we'll have to use a more private office, like mine." Draco replied, totally unconcerned that they might have been caught in a compromising position.

"Next time?" Hermione raised an eyebrow at her husband. "You're hoping for a next time, are you?"

"Definitely." Draco grinned. "You can show up at my office for an afternoon romp any time you want."

Hermione laughed in response to her husband, before shooing him out of her office and getting back to work. However all afternoon his words kept playing around in her head and she began to plan a return visit to his offices.

The following week Hermione showed up at Draco's offices at lunchtime, wearing nothing but a coat and a set of sexy underwear. The visit was such a success and they both had such a good time that the visits soon became regular, and once a month Hermione would pay her husband a surprise visit for a bit of office sex.


	16. Prefects

Prefects.

Standing in the entrance hall, Draco wished the Prefect he was waiting for would hurry up. He had more important things to be doing than waiting for someone to show up so he could do patrols. When Pansy had been too ill to patrol that evening, Draco had hoped that meant their patrols could be passed onto another set of Prefects, but instead Dumbledore had insisted that he would just ask one of the other Prefects to accompany Draco on his patrols.

Finally Draco heard footsteps on the stairs, indicating his patrolling partner was finally coming. Looking up Draco groaned as he spotted Hermione coming down the stairs. He would rather deal with anyone other than Granger. If it had been one of the other prefects he was sure he could have whizzed through the patrols at a super quick speed, or intimidated them into doing patrols alone, but it wouldn't work with the Gryffindor Prefect. Hermione was one of the only people in the school that wasn't easily intimidated by him.

"Sorry I'm late." Hermione said as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "I was helping Neville search for Trevor, he's gone missing again."

"I'm not interested in Longbottom and his stupid toad." Draco interrupted. "Let's just do these bloody patrols so I can get to bed."

In reality bed would be a long time coming for Draco, even when patrols were finished he needed to get on with trying to fix the vanishing cabinet. The pressure of what Voldemort was making him do was starting to get to him, and every day that passed without any him making progress just made things worse. Draco knew failure would result in his mother's death, but at the minute that was the only outcome he could see, which just ramped up the pressure even more.

"You look pale." Hermione remarked as the pair set off on their patrols.

"I'm always pale." Draco snorted.

"You're paler than normal." Hermione said.

"Yeah, well the weather hasn't been great. I haven't managed to get a tan this year." Draco snarled, throwing Hermione a glare that clearly said 'shut up'.

Hermione did shut up after that, but as they patrolled Draco could feel her watching him. A year ago he would have mentioned it and teased her about fancying him, but he knew that this year he wasn't exactly looking very good. Hermione was right, he was paler than normal and he had dark circles under his eyes due to the lack of sleep. As the year had worn on he'd also lost weight with the worry and he was taking less and less care of his appearance. All in all Draco knew he looked terrible, so Hermione clearly wasn't watching him because of his good looks.

Despite the scrutiny, Hermione kept quiet for the rest of the patrol. Draco had thought he would get away from her without either of them speaking again when they arrived back in the entrance hall at the end of their patrols. Giving her a curt nod, Draco turned and strode towards the dungeons. He knew he would have to appear to be heading back to the Slytherin common room, unless he wanted Hermione to get suspicious about what he was up to.

"Malfoy."

Hermione's voice stopped Draco as he was about to descend into the dungeons. Turning around he found the Gryffindor witch was still standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching him with a concerned look on her face.

"I know we're not friends, but if you ever need someone to talk to I'll be willing to listen." Hermione offered quietly. "I promise I'll help you in whatever way I can."

Draco stared at Hermione, totally taken aback by her offer. He was amazed that someone he'd treated so badly over the years could find it in her heart to offer her assistance to him. He just wished he could take Hermione up on her offer, but he couldn't. If he so much as spoke about what The Dark Lord had tasked him to do, his mother would be killed, and Draco wasn't risking anything happening to Narcissa.

"The offer's always there." Hermione said, giving the blond Slytherin a small smile before she turned around and headed up the stairs.

Draco watched her go with a feeling of longing. He wanted nothing more than to go chasing after her and pour his heart out to her. It would be so nice to have someone to confide in, someone who could help him, but he couldn't. Draco was alone in this, it was up to him to save his family, and nothing or no-one could help him. Not even Hermione, no matter how much he wished she could.


	17. Questions

**A/N – Thanks for all the lovely reviews, I'm pleased people are enjoying Alpha-Bites. I admit I was a bit unsure of how it would go down considering it isn't a story, just snippets. Anyway this snippet is my favourite one by far. I loved writing it so much that I may just include it in a full length story some time. I hope people enjoy this one as much I enjoyed writing it.**

* * *

><p><span>Questions.<span>

Scorpius was a curious child, and he had dozens of questions for nearly every subject. Every new experience was met by a barrage of questions from the five year old and discovering he was about to get a sibling was no different.

Once Draco and Hermione had received the all clear from their first hospital appointment, it was time for them to inform their friends and family. Obviously the first person they wanted to talk to was Scorpius, so they sat the five year old down and tried to explain to him that he was getting a new brother or sister.

"Can I be there when it hatches?" Was Scorpius's first question.

"Hatches?" Hermione frowned at her son.

"Babies hatch from eggs." Scorpius explained to his mother, giving her a look that clearly said she should know this. "Like the dragons Charlie showed me."

"Children don't hatch." Draco told his son, realising where the confusion had sprung from. The previous week he'd taken Scorpius to a dragon sanctuary run by Charlie and the wizard had let Scorpius witness the hatching of a couple of baby dragons.

"Why not?" Scorpius demanded. "Dragon's hatch."

"Some creatures hatch from eggs, but not humans." Hermione explained to her son.

Scorpius nodded his head, but he still looked sceptical at the idea his little brother or sister wouldn't be hatching from an egg. "So, how do we get a baby?" He asked seriously. "Do we go to the shop and buy one? I want a brother."

"It doesn't work like that Scorp." Draco chuckled. "You don't buy babies, and you can't choose if you're having a boy or a girl."

"That's not fair." Scorpius pouted. "What if we get an ugly baby? Or a boring baby?"

"I'm fairly sure the baby won't be ugly." Draco told his son. "Malfoy's aren't ugly. And Malfoy's aren't boring either, so you don't have to worry about that."

"But how do we get the baby?" Scorpius repeated. "Where is it coming from?"

"The baby comes from me." Hermione explained. She would rather not explain to her five year old son where babies came from, but she knew he would just keep asking until he got an answer he was satisfied with. "The baby is growing in my tummy, and when it's big enough to survive, it'll come out."

"You have a baby in your tummy?" Scorpius eyed his mother warily. "Did you eat it?"

At the question, Draco burst out laughing while Hermione struggled to keep her composure. If both her and Draco were laughing Scorpius might get offended, and she didn't want to upset him. The last thing she wanted was for their son to think he was going to be pushed out by another child. Hermione wanted to make sure that Scorpius knew they loved him just as much as his baby brother or sister.

"No, Scorp, I didn't eat the baby." Hermione reassured her son, who was looking rather worried at the thought.

"So how did it get inside you?" Scorpius asked.

"It's a bit hard to explain." Hermione told her son.

"I'm clever." Scorpius stated.

"That's the problem." Hermione muttered. Unless her explanation was very convincing, Scorpius would continue asking awkward questions.

"You know when Mummy and Daddy kiss?" Draco asked his son, deciding to step in and try and save his wife from answering since she clearly hadn't got a clue what to say.

"Yes, it's yucky." Scorpius stuck out his tongue and crinkled his nose in disapproval of his parents being sloppy.

"Well, sometimes when Mummy's and Daddy's kiss they create a baby." Draco said.

"How?" Scorpius demanded.

"Love." Hermione jumped in. "Daddy's love jumped inside of me and mixed with my love, and a baby was made."

Scorpius looked at Hermione in disbelief before shaking his head. "I want to go to the Manor."

"What?" Hermione was slightly taken aback by her son's abrupt change of subject. "Why do you want to go to the Manor?"

"I want to ask Grandpa about babies." Scorpius replied. "Grandpa knows everything, and he can tell me how the baby is in Mummy's tummy."

"But we've told you." Draco pointed out.

"That was silly." Scorpius scoffed. "I need answers."

"Fine, let's go to the Manor." Draco said, sharing an amused look with his wife. Both of them were looking forward to seeing Lucius try to explain about babies to Scorpius, no doubt the entire thing would be hilarious.

Within five minutes the family were ready to floo to the Manor. Draco went first with Scorpius, with Hermione following behind her husband and son. When the trio arrived at the Manor they found Lucius and Narcissa in the front room, enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon. Well, they had been relaxing until Scorpius bounded into the quiet room and jumped up on the sofa next to Lucius.

"We didn't expect to see you today." Narcissa said as she greeted her son and daughter-in-law. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, Scorpius just had a question for Father." Draco replied.

"Ask away Scorpius." Lucius smiled at his grandson.

"I'm going to get a little brother or sister." Scorpius announced.

His announcement was met by a squeal of joy from Narcissa and a wide smile from Lucius. The pair took a few minutes to congratulate Draco and Hermione, before refocusing on Scorpius and his important question.

"What I want to know is how the baby got into Mummy's tummy." Scorpius told his grandfather.

Lucius's eyes widened in surprise, and when he looked over at Draco and Hermione he found the pair were watching the conversation with amusement. Clearly their answers hadn't impressed Scorpius and he'd demanded to speak with someone who would put him straight.

"Did you not ask your Mummy and Daddy?" Lucius questioned the little boy.

"Daddy said it was a kiss that put the baby in her tummy, but he kisses Mummy all the time and they don't have lots of babies." Scorpius replied.

"This kiss happens when Mummy and Daddy are alone in the bedroom." Lucius told his grandson, smirking at the horrified looks that Draco and Hermione were now wearing. "Daddy gives Mummy a very special kiss, and that makes a baby."

"But how?" Scorpius asked, still not satisfied with the answer he was receiving.

Across the room Hermione nudged Draco and whispered at him to stop his father before he said any more. Not knowing how to stop his father without arousing Scorpius's suspicions even further, Draco shrugged helplessly at his wife.

"The kiss Daddy gave Mummy was magic." Lucius told Scorpius. "The magic in the kiss made the baby."

"Okay." Scorpius nodded, before turning to his father. "Why didn't you tell me the kiss was magic?"

"Sorry." Draco replied, shaking his head at how simple it had been to get Scorpius to believe the kiss story. If only he'd thought of mentioning magic then everything would have been so much easier.

"This magic that makes babies, do you learn it at Hogwarts?" Scorpius asked. Now he knew about how babies were made, he wanted to know more about magic. "Will I learn it?"

"It's very advanced magic, only grown-ups can use it." Lucius said. "But I'm sure one day you'll learn how to make babies."

"With the magic kiss?" Scorpius checked.

"Yes, you make babies with the magic kiss." Draco told his son.

"Is that how I was made?" Scorpius asked his parents. "Did you do the magic kiss to get me?"

Lucius chuckled as a blushing Hermione nodded her head and changed the subject to whether Scorpius wanted a brother or sister. No doubt Scorpius would be telling everyone he knew how babies were made and the story of the magic kiss would be spread throughout Draco and Hermione's friends and family.


	18. Ring

Ring.

Draco sat in his study, looking at the small box he'd just placed on his desk. Inside was a diamond engagement ring that he was planning on giving to Hermione in a few hours' time. However as the time to propose got closer, Draco was starting to wonder if he was doing the right thing in asking Hermione to marry him. He wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with Hermione, but he couldn't help but think she deserved better than him.

Draco had long since thought Hermione deserved someone better than an ex Death Eater, but he was much too selfish to give her up. Marriage however would be a different matter. Once she was married to him she'd be judged by the fact she was a Malfoy, and Draco knew his family name wasn't exactly the best name to have after events of the war. Draco himself had struggled to set up his potions company as several people heard the name Malfoy and refused to have anything to do with him. Hermione didn't deserve to be treated like that, but at the same time Draco didn't want to let her go.

However, Hermione had never seemed to have a problem with being involved with a Malfoy. They'd been completely open about their relationship back in school, and she'd told her friends about it immediately. Once they'd left school they'd also never hidden their relationship, and despite the fact they'd lived apart for nearly two years they still spent almost all of their free time together. In fact it had even been Hermione who had broached the topic of moving in together, almost eighteen months ago.

Setting his doubts aside, Draco slid the ring box off the desk and into his trouser pocket. He would propose to Hermione as planned, and leave the decision about whether she wanted to become a Malfoy up to her. Standing up, Draco had just reached the door of his study when Hermione emerged from the bedroom of their shared penthouse. His girlfriend looked stunning in a halter neck white and yellow print dress. Her curls were cascading loose down her back, just the way Draco liked them, and she was wearing the new crystal teardrop necklace and earrings set he'd given her for her birthday that morning.

"You look gorgeous." Draco said, making his way across to his girlfriend. "I'm half tempted to suggest we skip dinner and just go back to bed."

"There's plenty of time for that later." Hermione smiled. "But you promised me a romantic dinner, and I've been looking forward to it all day."

"I don't want to disappoint you." Draco replied, holding out his hand for Hermione to take hold of.

Once Hermione had hold of his hand, Draco wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled out his wand. Checking his girlfriend was ready, he whisked them off on their romantic date. Their destination was a small, intimate restaurant on the south coast of England. Despite it being September the last vestiges of summer were still present and it was a lovely evening to be eating out on the terrace of the restaurant, which overlooked the beach.

"This is gorgeous." Hermione whispered to Draco as the waiter led them to their table, which was the only one on the terrace and gave them a real sense of privacy.

"You'll have to thank Blaise for telling me about this place." Draco told his girlfriend as they settled down at their table. "He mentioned it when I told him I wanted to do something special for you tonight."

"And why are you making such a fuss of me?" Hermione asked curiously. "It's not a special birthday or anything."

"Can't I just show you how much I love you?" Draco replied.

"I suppose so." Hermione answered, even though she was still convinced Draco was up to something. He'd never gone to so much trouble on any of her other birthdays, and this would be the fourth one she'd had since they got together.

By the end of the meal, Hermione had forgotten about trying to work out what Draco was up to, instead she was just having a great time. When they left the restaurant, Hermione fully expected them to be heading straight home, but instead Draco took hold of her hand and began making his way down to the beach.

"I thought we could go for a walk, before we went home." He said.

"I'd like that." Hermione replied, giving her boyfriend a large smile.

At the edge of the beach, Hermione stopped to remove her shoes. Using magic she shrunk them down and placed them in her bag, before grabbing hold of Draco's hand and heading onto the sand. The couple walked hand in hand along the shoreline for nearly an hour.

"It's so deserted." Hermione remarked, looking around at the empty beach as they stopped walking and sat down on the sand. They'd even left the houses and shops behind a good ten minutes ago, heightening the feeling that they were on a private beach.

"I'm sure if we kept walking we would hit civilisation again." Draco remarked. "But right here is perfect."

"Perfect for what?" Hermione asked.

Instead of responding, Draco pulled the ring box from his pocket and moved so he was kneeling in front of Hermione. At the sight, Hermione raised her hand to her mouth in surprise. It had never crossed her mind that Draco might propose, which considering they lived together and were in a committed relationship was bound to happen sooner or later.

"Hermione, will you marry me?" Draco asked, flipping open the lid of the box and revealing a delicate diamond ring.

Hermione gasped at the sight of the ring. It was perfect. No doubt it cost a fortune, but it wasn't flashy or overly big. It was a moderate sized diamond set on a thin silver band, with smaller diamonds forming a circle around the larger stone. Tearing her eyes away from the ring, Hermione looked up at Draco and found he was watching her with a nervous expression.

"Of course I'll marry you." She grinned, launching herself at her boyfriend and causing them both to fall back onto the sand.

The couple remained in an embrace for a few minutes, before they sat up and Draco slid the ring onto Hermione's finger. Seeing the ring on Hermione's finger, and her joy at their engagement, helped to banish Draco's doubts. It might be tough being a Malfoy, but if anyone could handle it, it would be Hermione.


	19. School

School.

Hermione stood on platform nine and three quarters, biting back the tears that threatened to fall. It was Lyra's first day of school and Hermione was a mixture of conflicting emotions. On one hand she was happy for her daughter, who'd been looking forward to going off to Hogwarts since Scorpius started school five years earlier, and she hoped Lyra had a brilliant experience at the magical school. On the other hand, she was saying goodbye to her youngest child and it hurt. When Scorpius had started school, Hermione had consoled herself that at least Lyra was still at home, but with Lyra she couldn't do that. Once Lyra left for school both her children would be gone.

"It's not that bad is it?" Draco asked quietly, coming up beside his wife and placing a comforting arm around her waist. "You've still got me."

"I know, but it's not the same." Hermione replied, leaning into her husband. "The house will feel so empty with just the two of us."

"It will be strange without them." Draco conceded.

Hermione looked over to where Scorpius was helping his sister get her trunk onto the train and sighed. "Sometimes I wish we could go back to when they were little and do it all again."

"That's not your way of saying you want another baby is it?" Draco asked, looking down at his wife cautiously.

Draco loved his two children, and wouldn't change them for the world, but he didn't really fancy adding a third one to the brood. At least not now Scorpius and Lyra were growing up and were off at Hogwarts. Draco was actually looking forward to spending some quality time alone with his wife now they would have the house to themselves for so many months on end.

"No, I don't want another child." Hermione chuckled. Her thoughts actually mirrored Draco's, she was just finding it hard to adjust to her children growing up.

Draco let out a relieved sigh as Scorpius and Lyra hopped back off the train and headed in their direction. Draco smiled at his son and warned him to behave as Hermione pulled Lyra into her arms for one final hug.

"I'm going to miss you so much." Hermione told her daughter.

"I'm going to miss you too." Lyra replied as she wormed her way out of her mother's embrace.

"Make sure you behave yourself, and write often." Draco told his daughter as he also gave her a hug.

"You didn't make this much fuss when I started school." Scorpius complained.

"We were just pleased to get rid of you." Draco joked, grinning at his son so he knew he didn't mean it. "We were counting the days to you starting school for years."

"Charming." Scorpius rolled his eyes, but his smile showed he wasn't offended by his father's words.

"Do you want us to make a fuss of you, Scorp?" Hermione asked innocently. She knew her son hated being made a fuss of in public and he would die of embarrassment if she dared to hug him or kiss him in front of his friends.

"Don't you dare." Scorpius warned, backing away from his mother. "I'm a Slytherin and a Malfoy. I've got a reputation to uphold, and kissing my mother in public isn't an option."

"Please, your father had a reputation in school and he's the biggest mummy's boy I know." Hermione scoffed.

"I am not." Draco protested as both his children laughed at him.

"You are." Hermione replied. "I know how much you love Narcissa, and what you'd do for her and I wouldn't have it any other way." She added seriously.

Draco smiled at his wife before leaning down and softly connecting their lips. Their actions caused a groan of disgust from both Scorpius and Lyra. Laughing at their children, the couple parted and turned back to Scorpius and Lyra.

"I think it's time we boarded the train." Scorpius told his sister. "Quick, before anyone we know spots them behaving like lovesick teenagers."

With a final hug and kiss for Lyra, Hermione leant her head against Draco's shoulder as she watched her children board the red engine that would whisk them away from her. The laughter had momentarily made Hermione forget about her sadness, but as the train pulled out of the station it hit her again. Both her children had gone and she wouldn't see them until December.

"Come on, let's go home." Draco said to his wife and the train faded from view.

"We both have to go to work, I only booked the morning off." Hermione replied.

"I took the liberty of arranging for you to have the whole day off." Draco admitted. "I thought you might need cheering up, so I thought we could spend the day together."

Hermione smiled up at her husband, touched by his thoughtful gesture. Leaning up she gave him a quick kiss, before taking hold of his hand and letting him whisk her away. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad without the children, with them being off at Hogwarts it would give her and Draco a bit more time together.


	20. Twins

Twins.

Finishing her book, Hermione put it to one side and looked over at her husband. Draco was sitting in a chair over the other side of the room, looking at a few business documents. Hermione watched Draco for several minutes, before he realised she was looking at him and looked up with a smile.

"I know I'm good looking, but you don't have to stare." He joked.

"Funny." Hermione rolled her eyes at her husband. "I was just wondering how long you were going to be?"

"I can be finished whenever you want." Draco said. "I just didn't want to interrupt your reading, so I got a bit of work out."

"I was thinking I might go and have a nice relaxing bath. How do you fancy, coming to scrub my back?" Hermione asked.

"I'm up for that." Draco grinned, flicking his wand and sending his paperwork into his study.

Getting up, the couple had just made it to the door of the front room when the floo network sounded behind them. Turning round they saw their son, Scorpius, emerging from the flames, followed by his wife, Lily.

"We weren't expecting to see you today." Hermione told her son as she gave him a hug and a kiss, before greeting Lily in the same way.

"We're not disturbing you, are we?" Lily checked. She'd been wary of visiting her parents-in-law unexpectedly as with Draco and Hermione you never knew what you could potentially be walking in on.

"Of course not." Hermione reassured the young witch. "You're welcome anytime."

"I suppose our bath can wait." Draco muttered.

"Thanks for sharing, Dad." Scorpius tutted, rolling his eyes at his father. It was just typical that they'd chosen to visit right as his parents were heading off for a bit of fun.

"I'm assuming there's a point to this visit." Draco said. "You never call round unexpectedly."

"That's because it's not safe." Scorpius retorted. "I can still remember the time I visited just after moving out and found the pair of you out in the back garden without any clothes on."

"We were just getting a tan." Draco smirked.

"You've got a funny way of tanning." Scorpius muttered, shuddering as he remembered just what his parents had been doing.

"I think that's quite enough." Hermione said. "Let's forget the past and concentrate on the present."

"Okay." Scorpius nodded as he took hold of Lily's hand and the couple exchanged a smile. "Sit down, we've got some news for you."

"You're pregnant." Hermione guessed.

"Yes." Lily confirmed with a big smile.

"That's brilliant." Hermione beamed as she rushed over to embrace her son and daughter-in-law.

"Congratulations." Draco smiled as he joined in with congratulating the young couple.

"I can't believe I'm going to be a grandmother." Hermione said as everyone sat down so they could continue talking.

"Bloody hell, that'll make me a grandfather." Draco muttered, paling at the realisation. "I'm an old man."

"You've still got plenty of life in you yet." Hermione reassured her husband, squeezing his thigh and smiling at him.

"Okay, before you start groping each other, that's not all we've got to say." Scorpius said, watching warily as Hermione's hand crept higher up Draco's leg.

"What else is there?" Draco asked. "From the looks of Lily I would say it's too early to tell the sex of the baby."

"It is." Scorpius said. "But it's not too early to know we're having twins."

"Twins." Hermione gasped in delight. The prospect of one child was exciting enough, but two was even more thrilling.

"Double the trouble, there son." Draco laughed. "If these two are anything like you were when you were little then you're going to have your hands full."

"Don't, the thought of two mini Scorpius's running around is terrifying." Lily moaned.

"Let's hope they're girls and take after their mother." Hermione chuckled. "Because in my experience Lily, Malfoy men are all the same, a right handful. Scorpius was just like a mini version of Draco, and according to Narcissa, Draco was just a younger version of Lucius."

"What do you mean, was?" Lily laughed. "Scorpius is still like Draco, and Draco is still like Lucius. The three of them together are like peas in a pod."

"We can't help it if our Malfoy genes are so strong." Draco grinned.

"But look at it this way, at least we're all stunningly handsome men who know how to please our witches." Scorpius added with a Draco like smirk.

"And let's not forget the egos." Hermione chuckled. "You've all got massive egos."

"We're just confident." Draco told his wife. "And I'm sure our grandson, or grandsons if we get two boys, will be just the same."

"What if we get two girls?" Hermione asked. "Lily could be carrying our granddaughters."

"At least one is a boy." Draco stated confidently. "I can feel it."

"Me too." Scorpius added. "I'm convinced we're going to have one of each."

"You mean, that's what you want." Lily corrected her husband. "Just because you want both a boy and a girl doesn't mean that's what we'll get."

"You underestimate us, Lily." Scorpius grinned. "I want a boy and a girl, and a Malfoy always get what he wants."

Lily shook her head at her husband, but in the end Scorpius got what he wanted. When Lily gave birth she had both a boy, who was the spitting image of his father, and a little girl, who looked more like her.


	21. Underwear

Underwear.

Hermione looked at the box that was lying on the bed. Shaking her head, she turned to her husband who was standing beside her.

"How many times do I have to tell you, buying underwear for me is giving yourself a present."

"How do you even know it's underwear? You haven't opened it." Draco retorted.

"I can tell." Hermione replied. "You buy me enough of it."

"So what if it is." Draco shrugged. "You always have fun, and it is my anniversary as well."

"So it's a present for us both." Hermione concluded.

"Maybe the underwear is, but I do have other presents for you." Draco said.

"Presents, as in plural?" Hermione questioned. She'd bought Draco a watch for their anniversary and she would feel bad if he lavished her with dozens of presents.

"Technically, it's a few different presents, but they all go together to form one large present." Draco explained. "The underwear can also be classed as part of the same present."

"So when do I get the other presents?" Hermione asked.

"You have to open this one first." Draco grinned, picking the box up from the bed and handing it to his wife.

Hermione accepted the present and opened the box to reveal an emerald green and black set of lingerie. The set consisted of a bra, a pair of skimpy knickers and a little black see through negligée to wear over the top. Hermione had to admit they were a beautiful set, and definitely something she would have picked out herself.

"Do you like them?" Draco asked.

"I do." Hermione replied. "Thank you."

"You can have the rest of your presents now." Draco grinned, pulling his wand from his pocket and summoning the packages from his study.

Hermione watched as the boxes stacked up on the bed. There was a large flat box, a box shaped like a shoe box, a round box and a small box sitting on the top of the pile.

"I don't know where to start." Hermione admitted.

"Wherever you want." Draco told his wife. "They're all yours."

Hermione decided to start with the small box on top of the pile. Opening it up she revealed a necklace and earrings set. The earrings were emerald studs and the necklace was a long chain with an emerald dragon emblem on the end. Thanking her husband, she turned to the round box, which she opened to reveal a small silver evening bag. The box that looked like a shoe box was next, and it was indeed a shoe box. Inside the box was a pair of strappy silver sandals with a very high heel. Having a good idea of what her next present would be, Hermione pulled the lid of the largest box. As she expected she found a beautiful dress inside the box. The dress was the same shade of emerald green as the necklace and earrings and down one side of the material was a silver pattern that formed a dragon shape.

"These are gorgeous." Hermione told her husband. "Although you couldn't have gotten more Slytherin if you tried. Not to mention all the dragon bits."

"I love seeing you in my house colours." Draco admitted with a shrug. "And the dragons are just a reminder of who you're married to."

"As if I can forget that." Hermione smiled at her husband. "Thank you for all of this, it's brilliant. Although with a gorgeous new outfit, we'll have to go somewhere special."

"We are." Draco answered. "Our friends are throwing us a surprise anniversary party tonight."

"If it's a surprise, how do you know about it?" Hermione questioned.

"Pansy is no good at keeping secrets." Draco laughed. "She let it slip last week, but made me promise not to let on that I knew."

"So, if we have a party to attend tonight, what are we going to do until then?" Hermione asked with a smile. "I've even got my whole outfit sorted, so that will mean I don't need as long to get ready."

"We could always try out the first present I gave you." Draco suggested.

"Good idea." Hermione grinned, grabbing the box with the underwear in. "You put the rest of my stuff in the wardrobe and I'll be back in a minute."

While Hermione headed into the bathroom to change, Draco hung her new dress up in wardrobe. He also placed her shoes and bag in the wardrobe and put her jewellery on her dressing table. He then stripped himself down to his boxers and settled himself on the bed to wait for his wife.

When Hermione emerged from the bathroom, Draco wasn't disappointed. She looked stunning in her new lingerie, and the effect her scantily clad body had on him was instantaneous. Hermione grinned as she climbed onto the bed and saw the tent appearing in Draco's boxers.

"Someone likes what they see." Hermione chuckled, straddling Draco's lap.

"I do." Draco agreed, running his hands up Hermione's sides.

Hermione smiled down at Draco before leaning over and connecting their lips. For the rest of the day the couple remained in bed celebrating their first wedding anniversary. Hermione may have complained about Draco's buying her underwear as a present, but she wouldn't change that habit for anything. She always loved receiving sexy lingerie from Draco, and more importantly she always loved the mind-blowing sex that always followed such a gift.


	22. Valentine

Valentine.

Draco had never been a big fan of Valentine's Day. To be honest he'd never seen the point of it. Why did you need a special day to let someone know you loved them? Draco just though the whole day was pointless, and he never bothered with it. That was until his first Valentine's Day with Hermione, and Blaise had asked him what he was planning on doing for his new girlfriend.

"Nothing." Draco replied, looking at Blaise as though he was mad. Blaise knew how he felt about Valentine's Day, and in fact shared his opinions on the matter.

"I agree, it's a totally ridiculous day." Blaise told his friend. "But girls love it. If you're in a relationship with someone, they expect some sort of recognition of the day."

"Is that why you never have a girlfriend at Valentine's?" Draco chuckled.

"Precisely." Blaise nodded. "Of course that will change when I finally get Daphne to go out with me, but until then I'm resolutely single on Valentine's Day."

"I don't think Hermione's the type to bother about Valentine's." Draco said.

"Just because she doesn't show it, doesn't mean she doesn't care." Blaise replied, offering his words of wisdom to his best friend. "I'm telling you, if you let the day pass without incident you'll hurt her feelings. She'll be expecting something, even if it's just a naff card."

"I am not getting her one of those soppy cards you see everywhere." Draco grimaced at the thought of the horrid greetings cards that had been in almost every shop in Hogsmeade since just after Christmas.

"You don't need to get her a card, just do something." Blaise advised.

Draco had pondered on Blaise's advice for a couple of days, but he just couldn't think of anything he could do for Hermione. They'd only been together a few weeks and he wasn't totally comfortable with expressing his emotions just yet. He didn't want to do some sort of big romantic gesture as their relationship was still new, and since they were still really getting to know one another he didn't want to scare Hermione off.

Eventually Draco settled on the pair of them spending the entire day together. Since Valentine's Day fell on a weekend practically the whole school had gone off to Hogsmeade, but Draco had suggested to Hermione they stay behind to avoid of the mushy love stuff that would be plaguing the village. Hermione had readily agreed, and suggested they spent the morning in the library. While it wasn't exactly romantic, Draco agreed and the pair spent their morning studying.

"Why don't we grab some food from the kitchens and go and eat down by the lake." Draco suggested when they broke for lunch.

"Is it not a bit cold to be eating outdoors?" Hermione asked.

"We can take a blanket and cast a heating charm over it." Draco replied.

"Okay." Hermione nodded, happy with Draco's solution.

After grabbing some food and a blanket the pair headed down to the lake. Spreading the blanket on the grass they cast several heating charms on it and one they settled down it was as though they were picnicking on a summer's day. Once the food was finished, the pair remained lying on the blanket for the remainder of the afternoon, just talking and enjoying each other's company.

"Before we go back to the castle, I have something for you." Draco told Hermione when she mentioned it was time they should be heading back indoors. Pulling out his wand he summoned a small, long box from his bedroom and handed it to Hermione. "Happy Valentine's Day."

"I have nothing for you." Hermione admitted. "I think Valentine's Day is a swizz."

"Me too." Draco chuckled. "But Blaise insisted I do something for you. I didn't want to hurt your feelings by not doing anything, but I was unsure what to do. That's why I suggested we spend the whole day together, and the present was just a spur of the moment thing. I'll understand if you don't want it."

"I really appreciate the present, and I've loved spending the day together." Hermione told her boyfriend. "Just don't feel you have to honour Valentine's Day every year, I'm really not fussed about it."

"In future we'll not celebrate." Draco smiled, feeling elated that Hermione was already thinking they would be together in years to come. "But for now, why don't you open your present."

Hermione nodded and opened the lid on the box Draco had handed her. From the shape of the box she'd been half expecting jewellery, but what she found was a single red glass rose.

"It's beautiful." Hermione gasped, lifting the rose out of the box. "I love it."

"I did think about getting you a real rose, but I thought this way it would last longer." Draco explained.

"It's gorgeous, thank you." Hermione placed the rose back in its box and gave her boyfriend a kiss.

After that the couple never really made a fuss of Valentine's Day, but every February the fourteenth, Draco would present Hermione with a new, different coloured glass rose.


	23. Wedding

Wedding.

The wedding of Draco and Hermione could very well have been a lavish, extravagant event given how much money the Malfoy's had at their disposal. However, that wasn't the couple's style and they opted for a small, intimate wedding with only close friends and family present. The wedding was held in the last week of August, and the sun was shining brightly on the grounds of the hotel which the couple had booked for the nuptials. The pair were going to exchange vows in the rose garden of the hotel, before having their reception in the ballroom.

Following the tradition, Hermione and Draco had spent the night before their wedding apart. They'd both been at the hotel, along with their friends and family, but they'd been in separate rooms. Narcissa had even put charms on the rooms to alert her if either of them tried sneaking around.

"You don't look very rested." Ginny remarked as she tried to do Hermione's hair and make-up. "Couldn't you sleep with all the excitement? I remember I was so excited the night before I married Harry that I couldn't get a wink of sleep."

"It wasn't excitement that kept me up." Hermione told her friend. "I just missed Draco. I hate it when he's not with me on a night."

"I know the feeling." Ginny sighed. "When Harry's away overnight on Auror business, I never sleep. Of course part of that's because I'm worried sick for his safety."

"I know that feeling as well." Hermione said quietly. Even though the war was long over there were still people that resented Draco and his family for their part in the war and Hermione was often worried in case something ever happened to her fiancé, but luckily so far nothing had happened to him.

"This is starting to get maudlin." Ginny chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. "Let's talk about something more cheery."

"Like what?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, I don't know, how about the fact you're getting married this afternoon."

"What's there to talk about there, we know what's going to happen." Hermione shrugged.

"Fine." Ginny rolled her eyes at Hermione. Most brides would want to talk about nothing but their upcoming wedding, but clearly Hermione wasn't like most brides. "Let's talk about kids. Are you and Draco planning on starting a family anytime soon?"

"Not anytime soon, no." Hermione replied. "We have spoken about it, and we both want children, but not yet."

"Has James not made you broody?" Ginny questioned. James was her two month old son, and Ginny had noticed the way in which Hermione had been looking at him.

"He has." Hermione admitted. "But before we have kids, Draco and I want to enjoy a bit of married life just the two of us."

"That sounds like a good idea." Ginny said. "As much as I love James and wouldn't change him for anything, I often wish Harry and I had been married longer before we had him."

James was actually born seven and a half months after Harry and Ginny got married. Ginny said he was conceived on honeymoon and was a few weeks early, but Harry had confided in Hermione that Ginny was pregnant when they got married. Hermione hadn't quite understood the need for the lie, but Harry had told her that Ginny was worried in case Molly was disappointed in her for being pregnant before she was married. Once Harry had explained that, Hermione could see his point. Molly was very old fashioned, and it was clear from a few things she'd said on the morning of Ginny's wedding that she thought her daughter was still a virgin.

"Okay, you're all done." Ginny announced, beaming at Hermione. "Now you just need to slip into your dress."

Once Hermione was in her dress, Ginny headed off to make sure Harry was managing with James. Almost as soon as Ginny left, Hermione was bombarded with visitors coming to check on her. Narcissa, Molly and her mother all came to check out the blushing bride and to offer her last minute advice with dealing with her nerves. Her father poked his head in and told her he'd be back shortly before Lucius paid her a quick visit to let her know that he was looking forward to having her for a daughter-in-law.

Just as Hermione thought she was going to get a bit of peace and quiet before the ceremony there was a tapping on the window. Hermione turned to see what the noise was and almost screamed when she spotted Draco hovering outside of the window on his broom.

"What are you doing?" Hermione hissed, throwing open the window so she could speak to her husband-to-be. "If your mother catches you, she'll kill you."

"Blaise is covering for me." Draco answered. "I just had to see you."

"Why? Are you thinking about running away and wanted to see what you'd be missing out on?" Hermione teased.

"I'd never run away from you." Draco replied seriously. "Especially when you're looking like that, you look amazing." He added with a smile.

"Thanks." Hermione smiled back at her fiancé. "So what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see you." Draco replied. "I missed you last night, and I just wanted to tell you how much I love you."

"I love you too." Hermione smiled, leaning partially out of the window so she could kiss Draco. The kiss wasn't easy with Draco being a broom, but they managed a short kiss before separating.

"I should go." Draco said. "I snuck out of the bathroom window, and Blaise is supposed to be keeping everyone out, but if I'm gone too long mother will go barging in to check on me."

"I hate to think what sort of excuse Blaise has come up with to explain why you've been in the bathroom for so long." Hermione said with a grimace.

"I'm not even going to ask." Draco replied.

After sharing a quick goodbye, Draco flew off to sneak back into his room. Hermione had just shut the window when her father returned to the room. They still had nearly ten minutes before they were due down in the gardens, so father and daughter had a last minute talk before leaving the bedroom.

The wedding itself was the most perfect, romantic ceremony. A large portion of the guests shed a few tears as Draco and Hermione exchanged heartfelt vows. While the wedding ceremony was serious, the reception was anything but. Blaise's Best Man speech had Hermione blushing furiously and several people in stitches as he recounted the couple's relationship in intimate, and often embarrassing detail. However the embarrassment was short lived as before she knew it, Hermione was in Draco's arms for their first dance as a married couple.

"So how does it feel to be Mrs Malfoy?" Draco asked as they moved to the music.

"Perfect. Like it was always meant to be." Hermione replied.

Draco smiled at his new wife, before leaning down and connecting their lips in a brief kiss. Smiling at each other the pair continued to dance, each of them looking forward to what married life would bring them.


	24. Xmas

**A/N – I really struggled finding a word for X so in the end I had to settle for using Xmas, even though I'm not over keen on shortening Christmas that way. Obviously these snippets are coming to end, so I want to thank everyone who had commented on this story. As always I really appreciate the support and your amazing words keeps me motivated to carry on writing.**

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><p><span>Xmas.<span>

Christmas had always been Hermione's favourite time of year. When she was a child she used to get up at the crack of dawn to open her presents. She would then spend the rest of the day plying with her new toys with her parents. As she got older getting up at the crack of dawn stopped, but she did still cherish the time spent with her parents. First and foremost to Hermione, Christmas meant spending time with her family.

Once she was an adult and in relationship with Draco, Christmas meant spending the day with him, although she did always visit her parents on Boxing Day. When Scorpius was born, Christmas then became about giving her son the same wonderful Christmas experiences she'd experienced as a child. The addition of Lyra just made things even better for Hermione, and Christmas was even more enjoyable with two children.

Lyra's first Christmas fell just six weeks after her birth, and was totally different to Scorpius's first Christmas. Scorpius had been ten months at his first Christmas, and the mischievous little boy was into everything. Over the course of December he'd tried to climb the Christmas tree three times, Hermione had caught him unwrapping presents twice and on Christmas Day he managed to tip his Christmas dinner over his head. Lyra meanwhile spent her first Christmas sleeping and being nursed by her parents.

Lyra's first Christmas still wasn't totally peaceful though, considering Scorpius was now five and was more of a handful than ever. After unwrapping all of his presents, Scorpius had unwrapped Lyra's presents for her, showing each thing to his baby sister even though she couldn't understand much.

"Where's all of Lyra's fun toys?" Scorpius asked, once he reached the end of the presents.

While Scorpius had gotten a vast array of toys and games, Lyra had mainly gotten clothes. She had gotten a few stuffed toys, but her other toys were all designed for babies and weren't in the slightest bit interesting to a five year old.

"These are fun for Lyra." Hermione told her son as she placed a stuffed penguin wearing a scarf and hat next to her daughter.

"But I can't play with them with her." Scorpius pouted. "Why doesn't she have a little broom so we can go flying?"

Much to Hermione's dismay, Scorpius had received a mini training broom for Christmas. Up until now she'd managed to put Draco off buying Scorpius his own broom. She was much happier with her son flying around with Draco, but her husband had insisted that it was time their son had his own broom.

"She's too young to fly, Scorp." Draco explained. "Once she'd bigger she can fly with us, but for now she has to stay on the ground."

"Okay." Scorpius nodded. "So what can she do? I've got lots of toys we can play with."

"How about I put Lyra in her bouncy chair, and you can play on the floor beside her." Hermione suggested. "She loves watching her big brother, and you can teach her all sorts of things."

Scorpius happily agreed to the idea, and while he was finding some toys to play with, Hermione settled Lyra into her bouncy chair. Once Lyra was settled in her chair, with her new penguin nestled beside her, Hermione settled back on the sofa with Draco as they watched their children. Scorpius had gotten out a pile of new animals and was creating a zoo with a toy set Lucius and Narcissa had bought for him. With each new animal he placed in the zoo, he was showing them to Lyra and telling her about them, complete with animal noises. Lyra loved the animal noises and giggled and gurgled away as her big brother entertained her.

"I think they're enjoying themselves." Draco chuckled, dropping a kiss to the top of his wife's head as they sat snuggled up together.

"I think they are." Hermione agreed with a smile. "And Scorp will love it next year when Lyra's big enough to play with him a bit more."

"Heaven help us when she gets up and about." Draco said. "She's already totally enamoured with her big brother, and my guess is she'll follow him anywhere. Just think of the trouble the pair of them will get into."

"Don't." Hermione moaned, burying her head in Draco's chest as she contemplated what mischief her two children could get into together. "Let me just enjoy the fact Lyra isn't mobile yet."

Draco chuckled at his wife as they carried on enjoying their first Christmas with two children. By the end of the day the couple were both exhausted and they had two tired children, who were asleep almost as soon as their little heads hit the pillow. Despite the tiredness, Draco and Hermione had both had a great day and as she fell asleep Hermione decided that she'd just had the best Christmas ever.


	25. Yule Ball

Yule Ball.

Making an excuse to her date about needing the bathroom, Hermione escaped the hustle and bustle of The Great Hall. So far the Yule Ball had been a great experience, but she needed a bit of space. Since her arrival she'd been either dancing with Viktor or fending off nosey schoolmates, who were dying to get the gossip on how she managed to bag the big Quidditch star as her date. To be honest, Hermione still didn't know how she'd attracted the attention of Viktor. Normally she was a mousy little bookworm, yet here she was the envy of almost every girl at the dance.

The night would have been perfect if only her friends had been happy for her. Actually Harry hadn't been too bad, just shocked she was with Viktor, but Ron had been sneering at her almost since she arrived with Viktor. Not long ago she'd finally gotten to speak to Ron, and he'd been nothing but rude and snappish with her. To be honest, he was part of the reason she needed a breather. She hated fighting with her friends, and she especially hated the moody glares Ron was throwing her way.

"Hermione." Ron's voice came from behind her.

As if thinking of Ron had conjured him up, Hermione turned around to find her friend exiting The Great Hall. Ron still didn't look very happy, so Hermione braced herself for another argument.

"Unless you've come to apologise, I've got nothing to say to you." Hermione began, trying to pre-empt any fighting that might happen.

"I just want to know one thing." Ron said. "Why him? Why Krum, and not me?"

Hermione laughed, before she realised Ron was deadly serious. He really didn't know why she was attending the dance with Viktor and not him.

"It's pretty simple really, he asked me." Hermione explained. "You've had dozens of chance's to ask me out, and you've said nothing. It's taken someone else showing an interest in me for you to even notice I exist."

"That's not true." Ron protested. "I noticed you ages ago."

"Yet you did nothing." Hermione replied with a shrug. "Viktor noticed me and asked me out, and that is why I'm with him and not you."

"Bloody Krum." Ron muttered. "He's got a cheek coming here and stealing my girl."

"I am not your girl." Hermione hissed at Ron. "I'm not a possession, I'm a person."

Glaring at Ron one final time, Hermione turned and stalked towards the open front doors. As she strode across the hallway, she failed to notice her silver bracelet slip from her wrist and fall to the floor. Ron hadn't noticed it either, as he'd turned around and gone stomping back into The Great Hall. However the bracelet hadn't gone unnoticed by everyone as a figure slipped from the shadows and picked it up.

Once outside, Hermione strolled over to a bench that was positioned on the front lawn. After casting a few charms on the bench to ensure she didn't get cold, or dirty her dress, Hermione sat down and stared out across the grounds. In a matter of minutes Ron had managed to put a dampener on her whole evening, her fight with him would taint the memories of even the good times.

After a few minutes, Hermione got up to return to the dance, she wasn't going to let Ron totally ruin her night. As she turned to head back into the castle she groaned as she spotted a familiar figure heading in her direction. This was just what she needed to make her evening complete, a run-in with Malfoy. Hoping the blond Slytherin would just ignore her, Hermione started to move towards the castle. However that wasn't to be as he stopped her when she went to pass by him.

"I think this is yours." Draco said to Hermione, holding out a silver bracelet to her.

Hermione looked down at her wrist and found her bracelet was gone. Taking the bracelet from Draco, she found it was indeed hers. The catch must have come open and it must have slipped from her wrist at some time.

"Thank you." Hermione said, putting the bracelet back on and charming it so it wouldn't fall off again.

Draco nodded in response and when it became clear he wasn't going to say any more Hermione moved past him and carried on walking towards the school.

"Granger." Draco called, just as she reached the door.

Hermione turned around and found the blond boy hadn't moved, he'd just turned his head so he was facing her. Even with the light coming from the school his face was in shadow, so she couldn't see his expression. Bracing herself for him to hurl an insult at her, Hermione stared at the Slytherin, waiting to see what he had to say.

"You look lovely."

Hermione blinked in surprise at the unexpected compliment, but before she could respond Draco had turned around and had disappeared into the dark. For a long time, Hermione continued to stare after the blond wizard in shock. She could hardly believe he'd called her lovely, it was totally unlike him and Hermione was half tempted to think she'd imagined it. However she knew it had happened, no matter how strange it may seem.

"Hermione." Viktor's heavily accented voice called, drawing her from her shock. "Do you wish to dance?" He asked when Hermione turned around to find him standing in the hallway behind her.

"I'd love to." Hermione smiled at Viktor as she let him lead her back into The Great Hall and whisk her into his arms for yet another dance.

For the rest of the night Draco's words floated around Hermione's head, and in years to come when asked about her abiding memory of the Yule Ball, she always said the same things. What she remembered most about the Yule Ball was the unexpected compliment she'd received from a boy she thought hated her.


	26. Zanzibar

Zanzibar.

When picking a honeymoon destination, Hermione and Draco wanted to go somewhere neither of them had been before. Both had travelled a lot on family holidays as they grew up, and they'd had their fair share of holidays and mini breaks together since their relationship began. Actually finding somewhere had been harder than either of them thought as combined they'd travelled to quite a few countries.

Eventually they'd settled for Zanzibar, as neither of them had visited Africa before. They had briefly debated about South Africa, so Draco could go cage diving with sharks, but eventually the white sands and blue waters of Zanzibar had won out. Since there was no wizarding population in Zanzibar they had to book and travel the muggle way. Draco did complain about not being able to floo directly to the private villa they'd rented, but his complaints soon stopped when they arrived and found themselves in the most beautiful place either of them had ever visited.

"I think I'm going to like it here." Draco grinned, standing in the doorway of the villa and looking out over the white beach a few moments' walk away from where they were staying.

"It is lovely." Hermione agreed, admiring the crystal clear Indian Ocean. "I'll get a great tan."

"But that means going outside." Draco protested.

"Of course we're going to go outside, it's too lovely to stay indoors all the time." Hermione tutted at her new husband.

"But it's our honeymoon, we're supposed to spend our time naked." Draco argued.

"We can be naked outside." Hermione said. "The villa has its own pool and gardens, so all we have to do is cast a few security charms around the place. As long as we're not too obvious the muggle's shouldn't notice."

"What about the beach?" Draco questioned. "I know there's only a few other villa's on this stretch of beach and it's fairly secluded, but it's not totally private."

"I'm sure we can put a few clothes on to venture down to the beach." Hermione laughed. "I did bring a couple of new bikinis that I want to try."

"As long as you're not wearing them too often." Draco grinned.

"I'm not wearing a bikini right now." Hermione retorted.

"But you are wearing clothes." Draco pointed out.

"How about we remedy that." Hermione smiled as she reached behind her and unzipped her dress.

"I thought you wanted to put security charms around the grounds." Draco said as Hermione dropped her dress, leaving her in a barely there light pink underwear set.

"We can do that later." Hermione said. "Wouldn't you rather head upstairs and check out the bedroom?"

"You know what, I think I would." Draco said.

Taking hold of Hermione's hand the couple headed off to the bedroom. A few hours later they explored the rest of the villa and set the charms so they could go outside without having to bother with clothes. For the next three weeks, Hermione and Draco spent their time lounging around the villa and making love. They did spend a bit of time on the beach, and even had a few meals in nearby restaurants, but mainly they stayed in the villa, enjoying their time together.

The End.

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><p><strong>AN – Thanks to all the great reviews for this story, as well as all the follows and favourites. I'm thrilled that's it's gone down so well since it was something a bit different. **


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